me & my flame pts 15-25
by wild charizard
Summary: How *does* Chad Charizard escape Death Row? And who's This? An Irate She-Char?? Grrrrr!


15 Minutes of Fame

  
  
  
     "You have 12 New messages," said the computer. 

Chivonne Kasper clicked down the list, deleting eleven junk messages, not surprising since she had not gotten online in two days. One email remained, forwarded from _Natural Pokémon._

Its subject read FIRE-UP POSTPONEMENT NOTICE.

"What?" Chivonne stood up off her stool; a hot shaky spell washed over her as she clicked it.

_To All Fire-Up Members: We regret having to send this letter. Due to insufficient funding and recent opposition, the Fire-Up charizard breeding and repopulation program will not begin as scheduled this fall and has been put on hold until at least Spring 1544. We thank you for your generosity. Your donations will be returned to you in full no later than 07/01/43. Or, you may transfer your donations to the following programs: _

Save the Lapras

Gloomleaf Forest Conservation Program

Cinnabar Island Cleanup

"Mew Mountains" Restoration Project

And our newest program, "The Onix Foundation", dedicated to preserving the rocky habitat of these unique and endangered Pokémon. With your support we could save the pristine Southern Opal Mountains, a small northern range home to hundreds of Onix, now slated for highway construction. We need your support today!

The Fire-Up Forum will remain open and we will continue to answer questions regarding our change of plans and all other pertinent issues. You can read about the latest developments of the Onix Foundation in the upcoming (July) issue of Natural Pokémon Magazine. Thanks again for your support. . .

Chivonne sank onto her seat, put her head on her hands and leaned her elbows on the desk. "No."

"Chivonne?" Brett's voice called from the living room.

Chivonne shot upright, racing the mouse across the screen to "X" the message. As the internet flicked off she sauntered to the door and stepped out into the hall.

"What did you need."

Brett appeared at the foot of the stairs, dressed lightly for the early summer heat. He had put his sneakers and red cap on, but that didn't hide the mild sunburn he had gotten on his neck and arms yesterday while the two of them had converted the old Pokemon barn into a shed. The enclosure had once housed breeding Nidorans, Sandshrews and Doduos, but was overgrown with years of disuse. That had been a day of rest; the day before, they had both competed in a Pokémon tournament. "I'm going out back to put the lawn mower away, can you watch August a minute?"

"Sure." Chivonne effected a smile and strode downstairs. She heard August's voice before she rounded the corner into the living room.

"Poké Ball. . .Go!" The little boy whacked the false, toy ball onto the overstuffed chair. It bounced back and rolled on the floor; he leapt towards it. Chivonne glanced at the wide, rectangular TV screen on the wall showing a commercial. Despite hundreds of channels, she would rather go outside.

Brett stomped out the back door, still in his work boots. Chivonne sat on the couch carefully, facing the TV. She and the 5-year-old boy seemed like the only ones here. Lunia might be upstairs in her room, listening to music or on her computer system. "Poké ball Go!" August shouted. Chivonne picked a hardcover mystery novel off the coffee table and turned to the first page. (She didn't read the inside flaps; they spoiled it.) She tried to get into the story but kept wandering away from the printed words. _Millions of dollars donated--thousands by myself--and they canceled it._ Chivonne ran through the letter in her head. _Recent opposition._

Her legs sat tensed to jump back up as soon as August's dad got back. She ached to run upstairs and start emailing. She would get to the bottom of this. 

August held an empty ball in each hand. "Hi Chivonne."

Chivonne looked up and smiled, trying to relax. "Hi August." 

He scrunched his light brow. "What are you reading."

Chivonne held up the cover. "Hypnos At Midnight."

"Oh." August smiled at Chivonne as he wound up his arm, and tossed the Poké Ball into her lap. "Gyarados I choose you!"

Chivonne put the book down, meeting August's face with a mischievous smile. She jumped up and grabbed him. "Do I look like a Gyarados?" She tickled him; he kicked, laughing. "Do I look like a Gyarados, you silly boy!" 

She wondered if he would choose to get his Pokémon license in five years. Pitting those animals against each other in violent, pointless fights was mostly to blame for the devastation of wild populations, although these days everyone got them from breeders. But she couldn't blame August for aspiring to the same things as any kid. They glorified Pokémon battles, and she and Brett participated in them. Someday August would learn the real reason she did it.

"You're a Diglett!" August cried through tears of laughter. She stopped tickling him for fear he would wet himself, and carried him round the room over her shoulder. 

On television the news reporter's voice caught her ear. ". . .who was attacked yesterday by his own charizard in Crimson City Gym, remains in critical condition at the Crimson City Hospital's burn unit with burns covering 60% of his body." Chivonne put the toddler on his feet, straightened his shirt. 

As the news anchor spoke, the scene switched from her seated behind the desk at the news center to a scene inside the Crimson Gym. Thousands of screams echoed in the large space as a golden orange, male charizard swooped in and launched a breath of fire onto a man. "The 18-year-old trainer from Violet Town was a victim of a fire attack by a charizard he owned for two months. Officials have uncovered strong evidence of what may have provoked the animal." The TV showed a slowed-down shot of the charizard taking flight from the burning man. A white circle highlighted the small Pokémon in his muscular arms. Chivonne's eyes locked on the screen, on the shaky, handheld camera shots. She caught herself moving her head for a better view. "Come on!" August tagged her leg with the ball, but she shook her head. 

One camera zoomed in on the charizard and held still a few seconds as he flapped up to the domed skylight and blasted it with flame. He had vivid, sky blue eyes. "We're getting out of here!" he roared, his deep voice underscoring the echoes and screams. Then came shaky footage, buffeted by wind, of him flying outside, trailed by his flaming tail. 

"Who is he?" Chivonne walked over to the screen. 

"Some of that footage was made by spectators at the tournament," said the news anchor. "The animal was brought down soon afterwards by the Crimson City military using tranquilizer darts, and is being held at the city's Pokémon shelter under maximum security. Let's go to John, live outside Crimson City Gym."

"Thanks Lulu," said John as the screen zeroed in on him in the wind. "As you can see, they are in the midst of repairing the damage done to the gym. But the morale of the citizens of Crimson City, not to mention Pokémon trainers all over the world, will be a lot harder to restore."

_Just give more information about the charizard. Just show him again._

Chivonne couldn't believe she had missed half of this, or that she had skipped the Internet entirely yesterday in favor of the woods. 

"I'm back," called Brett as the back door swung shut.

"Chivonne was asking who's on the news," said August.

"Oh really?" Brett looked at the TV, then at Chivonne, then back at the TV where they were still talking about the incident.

"One of the gym security staff uncovered a surveillance video in a recovery room, in which the victim is seen physically abusing the same Pokémon who was later kidnapped." The scene switched to the footage, showing the charizard from the front, and the head and back of a greasy-haired human facing him. "Experts say he was threatening the charizard at the same time." The man held up a Meowth kitten and began beating it while the charizard watched, holding its hands out but staying where it was. The video had no sound but it didn't need any. "Apparently Lowry was one of many who used abusive methods to coerce his monsters to obey him. Under anti-abuse laws, local government may confiscate all of a trainer's Pokémon and retract their license permanently. The trainer's other Pokémon at the tournament were also taken to the shelter. The man's home is currently being investigated, and more Pokémon may turn up."

Oh, the pain in that dragon's eyes as he watched the man strike the kitten and slam him on the floor. The charizard bent out of view and scooped up the Meowth, but the man somehow convinced him to put it down and submit to a Poké Ball. 

"Who is he?" said Chivonne.

"I heard about this yesterday, but that clip is new." Chivonne knew Brett had not wanted her to find out about this, didn't want her obsessing over another hopeless case. "His name's Dorien Lowry."

"I mean the charizard." She looked at him with eyes slitted. _Don't play dumb with me._

Brett raised an eyebrow at Chivonne, who pretended not to notice, turning back to the screen. Brett stuck a hand in his back jeans pocket. "I don't know, he was just the guy's charizard. He didn't have it trained as well as he thought--he's abusive--and it turned on him. I know you're a charizard advocate, understandably, but if the trainer dies. . ." Brett shrugged. "You know the law. Don't waste your time."

"The hell with the law." Chivonne raced up the stairs. Lunia had stepped out into the hallway, apparently to get a snack or join the conversation; she tossed Chivonne her usual look of disgust. The girl, August's older sister by ten years, had recently grown taller than Chivonne, and whenever she had to face her she looked emphatically downward.

Sitting on her computer stool, Chivonne checked all the news web sites, saving every picture and video she could find, of him. She wrote a letter to the Crimson City Council, and a lengthy one to Natural Pokémon's online forum. She found the address of the shelter and emailed them asking the charizard's name, offering to buy him herself, asking whom to get in contact with, anything to save him. Money was no object. _I can pay any amount they ask even without refunding my donations._ She knew she was writing sloppily, but there wasn't a minute to lose. Time to slam her money around. If she was so unusual, and she was, the moment had come to start using that power. Now she knew at least partly why Fire-Up had been discontinued. 

While she waited for replies, she clicked up the best pictures and video clips she had saved of the charizard. She stared at a still frame, blurred and grainy, but showing one of the creature's cerulean eyes, a piece of the sky he was roaring to. 

Charizards were extinct in the wild. On the mainland. 

All her emails were ignored or received a reply turning down her requests, disagreeing with her, or denying her information. _He has no name. He is not open to visitors. He is not for sale._ Chivonne looked at the picture showing his eye. _Blue-eyes._ It was an unoriginal name, and most charizards had blue eyes, but she had never seen eyes so vivid blue, snatched from noon. 

After the news story blew over, after they put him to death and threw his body away, they would forget Blue-eyes. "Saying oh well, another Pokémon gone bad."

"After reading your message," read one email, "I became intrigued. You might want to take a more realistic standpoint. Charizards are endangered, and they may be intelligent, majestic, everything you said, but they cannot coexist with us unless they are properly managed. While they do deserve to live a natural life, granting them the same rights as humans would be downright dangerous. As for a fair trial, did you actually assume they are competent to stand trial in a courtroom? A couple of times you used the word "we". You speak as if you were a charizard yourself."

Chivonne forced her mouth shut, muffling her growls. She lowered her chin. Behind the stool her golden, flame-tipped tail lashed back and forth. 

  
  
  


16: Two Funerals and a Deal

  
  


     Alone, Chad lay curled towards the back wall of his small cage, one of two rows of cells lining a hallway. There were no forcefields, just bars, bars, unmeltable bars. He had tried melting them. He had tried gnawing them. What did he have to lose?

The rest of Dorien's Pokémon, including Mo, had been taken outside. He saw through the window at one end of the hall that it was sunny, like yesterday. A tear ran down his cheek and his nose started to run. Let it run. Let his face leak like ice cream onto the floor.

"If Dorien's dead, they're gonna kill you too," Roko had said when they came out of their Poké Balls this morning, one to each cell. "Ain't fair, but there's nothing you can do."

"I can't say I didn't try." Chad lifted his chin up just high enough to let the words out. "I tried with everything I had."

It wasn't fair.

Chad wanted Dorien to pull through. He wanted to keep living, probably because he feared death more.

The double doors opened, spilling indirect sunlight into the cells. Chad turned his head toward the humans walking in.

"No, I fed him this morning, he didn't try to flame me or anything," one lady was saying as she and another woman walked down the hallway, keys jingling, carrying Poké Balls. "I think he attacked once to get away and that was it. Did you see those surveillance tapes? I would've flamed him too. It's ridiculous."

They were opening the cells and releasing the Pokémon, petting each one. "Today's the last day these guys have to be in here, except for," said the first woman, nodding her head towards Chad. "The Crimson City court took one look at the footage and revoked his license. We'll move them out to the public cages tomorrow, we can get them adopted."

"Good!" said the other. "It's about time. . ." The doors bounced shut behind them. 

"Good job, you big blowtorch." Tanya stood in the next cell. Chad stood up with a puff of flame, then remembered she couldn't get past the bars. "Sit down." 

Chad's hands gripped the bars on the opposite side, staring into the empty next cage. 

"I mean it. And pat yourself on the back. You know this was the first time in YEARS that I went into a field and ate grass."

Chad looked over his shoulder, loosening his grip.

"Grass! REAL grass! I ain't seen the fucking sun in years! I could barely see out there. . .dammit." She blinked and pointed her horned nose at the ground. "Real grass. Real dirt, real pebbles. Real sky, I could just walk everywhere. Chad they said they're gonna kill you." 

"If Dorien dies."

"Fuck them." Her thick armored hand whammed the nearest bar. "Damn them! We're just Pokémon! There ain't a fucking thing we can do!" Tanya tossed her frilled head, caught her breath, looked back at Chad. 

"I ate real grass today. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Mo, in the cage past Tanya, began to cry."I had another bad dream. Dorien's face burning was chasing me."

"I'm really sorry you had to see that. That's my fault. I'm sorry you had to see a lot of things these past few months."

"I kept trying to run. . ."

"Hey, I wish I coulda saw it," said Tanya.

Mo cried more. "I don't want you to die."

Chad wracked his brain. "I'll figure something out."

"Ain't nothing you can figure out." Tanya's back slipped down with a gravelly scrape of spikes against the back wall as she sat. "Ain't a human in the world who'd help. They talk, but they don't do shit. They think they don't owe us nothing."

"I want to stay with Chad," said Mo when the humans came back the next day to take them outside. After getting the others into balls, they returned to Mo.

"He seems to want to stay," said the one woman, the younger one, to the other. She pointed to Mo poking his paws through the bars toward Chad.

"He wants to stay with the charizard; they're friends," said the older one, grimly. "Give him this one, last, night. We have to make him as happy as we can." She glanced at Chad and averted her eyes.

"What?" Chad found himself saying as she opened Mo's cage and put him in with Chad. Mo ran and collided with his leg. "What happened?" He stood up to his full height and held the bars at the front. "Is Dorien dead?"

The woman wiped a tear away and they walked back out the door.

"Oh Chad." Mo's trembling front legs wrapped Chad's ankle. Chad scooped up the kitten. He had never thought much about having his own charmander, but now he never would.

Nestled in Chad's arms, his front paws tucked by his chin, Mo looked up with eyes starting to tear.

"I won't die." Chad felt the lie leaking through his face as he looked down at Mo. He should have kept his mouth shut. "We'll be okay."

After eating a dinner of Meowth Mix, Mo curled up against Chad's side and slept. Feeling Mo purr, Chad lay his chin on the floor and closed his eyes, digesting the enormous dinner of fresh red meat and Poké treats--almost more than he could eat. He knew why they had made it extra good tonight. What now? How could he escape this one? Just yesterday he had felt so frustrated at Dorien's other Pokémon for resigning to his death so passively. But he had joined them now. The humans had all the leaks stopped; they might as well be Chah. Why waste time with another fiery tantrum, which would only upset Mo? He would use his last hours to think back on his life, say goodbye to everything. And pray. 

_Chah is this your way of saying you goofed up when you made me? Well, we all make mistakes. Better to bail out now, who knows what crazy things I would have done. Oh, um, about that Cave of Ice and Darkness. . .I know I didn't do so hot, but I gave it my best shot. Please don't put me in the Cave of Ice and Darkness, please. Yeah, I screwed everything up, but you can't say I didn't try. So please. Think it over._

Chad made his mind up. He would die with dignity.

The door opened and a man and a woman walked in. But dinner had already been served; why were they here?

Chad sprang onto his feet; Mo rolled over and yawned, "Chad?"

Chad spouted fire out the bars. He roared and held out his claws. "I don't want to die and I'll fight you every inch of the way!" Another huge roar. Mo clenched his eyes shut and covered his flattened ears.

"Well, there he is," said the man. "Go ahead, I'm waiting."

The woman proceeded down the hall; Chad stopped flaming. She was older, with straight gray hair cut above her shoulders. Her shoes softly clicked on the floor as she strode over. She stood just past Chad's cage.

"You probably don't recognize me now. But you might remember the little girl who came to Charizard Island."

Chad's mouth parted.

"I called you Blaze."

"Jade?"

Her face crinkled round the eyes as she smiled. "Poor thing, you could use some meat on those bones. I guess that's what your tormentor did to you. I saw those videos on television and I wanted to strangle him. Blaze, I missed you."

Chad reached a hand through the bars. Jade took it, and they hugged through the bars. Jade scratched the top of his head; he growled with delight.

"Still like that, don't you. I'm going to buy you out of here, so don't worry." She faced the man. "Well?"

"Ask him to get in a ball. You can't take him like this."

Jade folded her arms over her chest, then unfolded them, mumbling as she rummaged through her brown leather purse. She pulled out an ordinary Poké Ball, the kind Dorien could never get him into. Holding it up, she faced Chad. 

"Okay, Blaze, go in here and I'll take you home. It's just this once." She opened the ball and pointed the beam at his chest. As Chad dove into pure energy he realized the irony of feeling salvation wash over him as he went into the thing. He was glad not to have his body at the moment, so he wouldn't have to feel the monstrous thing that had seemed to be fighting in his stomach. Outside this ball, humans were deciding his fate. Oh--and what about Mo?

Mo is in good hands now. Wherever he goes will be much better than the time he's had with me.

Jade turned back to the man, smiling smugly as she tucked the ball into her pocketbook. "Well?"

"Well I've seen turnarounds but that could only happen if you knew it some time in its life. But the Gym Leader of Crimson City is coming down tonight to make sure this animal has been put down. I can't risk my livelihood."

"I can. I owe it to him. And money is no object. I'm in a Pokémon breeder family, I can afford it. Is there any way to. . .fake it?"

"Fake it?"

"I'll do anything for this fellow. He saved my life."

He thought a moment. The strange truth was, he actually could fake it. 

Jade pulled from her purse a checkbook. 

"How much are you asking."

"I'll tell you something," he said as she handed him the check, "this is unusual that I really can do this. That is one lucky charizard you're taking home."

As they passed the cages, they heard a lone, high mewing call.

"That's his Meowth friend," said the man as Jade stooped to pet Mo through the bars.

"I'll take him too."

He handed her Mo's ball and walked her down the hall of empty cages to the double doors. "I have to warn you, that dragon is one dangerous son of a Growlithe. From what we've been told, he seemed perfectly trained up to the day of that tournament. And you can't enter him in anything, not even a zoo. If he is ever identified, it will cause an upheaval, I will be jailed, this entire shelter will come under scrutiny, and he'll be put to death for real. I wouldn't even release him wild. Researchers take DNA samples all the time, and his is on the books, as they say."

Jade paused as she pushed the door open. She patted her purse. "He won't be found. He's not going anywhere while I'm alive."

After watching her leave into the cool fall evening, he went downstairs, into Crimson City's Pokémon morgue. A charizard was still filed among the recent deaths, awaiting incineration. Postmortem, the magic making its skin fireproof and preventing its fluids from boiling dispersed in hours, though the hide remained flame retardant.

He took a look at the body, to be sure he could pull this off. Not that he had much choice now.

This specimen was a slightly older male. Although the similar colors were luck, other features like wing spikes, shape of snout, curve of neck, made it clear they were of the same genetic stock--Charizard Island. Anyone not familiar with either specimen would be fooled. 

He opened the paperwork drawer and looked at the records accompanying this one. It had been caught as a charmeleon, grown unruly, been traded for years and finally ended up in a zoo. It had been found mysteriously dead in its spacious outdoor enclosure two days ago, near its water hole. The cause had never been determined. The zoo owners had been content to drop off the body, and drop the case, probably fearing the media--bad hype for a zoo that treated its animals well. They must know it had been suicide. Suicide among Pokémon was rarely talked about; many people (mostly those who never owned any) did not believe them capable of it.

He took the animal's papers upstairs and ran them through the office's shredder. At least the poor soul would, in death, save one of his brethren.

  
  
  


17: To Kill A Charizard

  
  
  
     Chivonne sat down on the living room couch in the late afternoon, after two hours' training drills for a tournament coming up in a few days. She switched on the news and saw Pokémon protestors gathered in front of the shelter at Crimson City. "Stop the Murder!" they chanted. The reporter stood in the foreground on the right, allowing view of the crowd, who held signs like "Save a Life", "Stop the Murder" and "Free the Charizard." Yellow police tape banded them back from crowding the camera. 

"Dorien Lowry, the trainer flamed by his own Pokémon, has died," said the reporter, "and now the question is: Should this animal be put to death?"

A picture of Blue-eyes appeared and Chivonne's insides fluttered. It went back to the reporter. 

"Most of the folks you see are Pokémon from Poké City, here for the sole purpose of participating in this protest. Let's have a word with some of these animal folks, if we can find one able to speak." He chuckled and the camera followed him unsteadily toward the crowd.

Chivonne leaned forward in her seat as the reporter stooped to spot-interview a Raichu with big gold hoop earrings. The animal's yellow cheeks sparked as she gave her name and told why she was here: "To save this guy's life. Why else."

"Careful with that electricity there." He smoothed his hair. "Have you ever met this charizard?"

"No. I just think it's a great injustice for your kind to kill our kind. We're here because we won't take it anymore!"

The others answered with resounding cries of agreement. 

Chivonne sprung up from the couch.

"Brett?"

His footsteps creaked on the upper stairs, then he stepped out in the hallway at the top of the living room steps. "You call me?"

Chivonne waved a hand at the TV. "Have you seen the news? That trainer died."

Scratching his chin, Brett came over to watch, as the reporter concluded his last interview, reviewed the scene and said, "We'll keep you updated."

She switched off the TV. "I'm going there myself."

"To Crimson City?"

She held her golden head high on her thin neck as she looked up at him. "Tonight."

Brett flagged a hand out toward the TV. "What, to protest? You're joking."

Chivonne tipped her head lower.

"You need to take it easy. Get some sleep. You worked hard today and I don't want you losing a full night. After August goes to sleep I'm probably packing it in." He wandered away behind the couch, up the stairs. "Lunia, you doing your homework?" 

"Yeah," came the lofty call from Lunia, cloistered in her bedroom.

"I'm taking the tube to Crimson City. I'll be back well before the tournament, hopefully by morning. If you like I'll call when I get there." 

He turned around on the stairs. "Chivonne. . .what. . ." He shook his head, "You're above all those guys from Poké City."

"I'm a Pokémon like they are. If I don't join the protest, I may try to save him another way."

"What, buy him? Talk sense. I'm going upstairs to get August's bath ready."

"Then you won't see me again tonight. I'm leaving."

"Chivonne." Brett plodded back down the steps. "Don't give in to an impulse. I know you've been following this whole story, but this is a mistake I won't let you make. Everyone would find out you talk, and that you're damn smart." Chivonne shifted her weight to one foot, staring him down. "Another thing, Team Rocket's all over the place lately. Now you've heard of these executions before. This is just one more. No it's not good, but people have to protect themselves. Charizards like him only ruin your kind's reputation."

Chivonne had always watched those news stories knowing there was nothing she could do. But this was Blue-eyes. Her body stirred again. 

"I am a charizard like him."

"Calm down." He was watching her tail flame.

"Goodbye, Brett." Chivonne started toward the door; Brett stepped in front of her.

"You are not going. Get some rest and tomorrow you'll see you were overreacting."

"His life is hanging in the air. I could never sleep. What's wrong with peaceful protest? With--trying to do everything in my power to save him?"

"We are trainer and Pokémon--partners. We have a code of conduct to uphold. You could also get caught and held for ransom. I'm not sure what you'd do even if you didn't. You're scaring me. I've never seen you like this."

"Partners are equals--you shouldn't be stopping my personal plans. This is my free time. If this were a human being--both of us would be there already." She tried to step around him but he blocked the door. She flapped her suddenly huge wings, knocking a lampshade askew.

"Do you really think you can change their minds once you get there? You saw them--they protest every time this stuff comes up. You'll look foolish, and trashy, and it won't stop anything, it never has. It's an ancient law."

"I have to try."

"I won't argue with you anymore. Fix the lamp, go to sleep, and stop giving me a headache. You need rest for this tournament." He marched up the stairs. "August? Are you undressed? Sorry I kept you waiting. . ." August ran across the hall naked toward the bathroom.

"I beat ya!" 

Brett went in after, saying, "Oh you did, did you, well hop in that bathtub . . ." He closed the door.

Chivonne went to her room and lay out on her polished black marble bed, puffing little globes of fire into the air. She rubbed her back and wings against the smooth stone. "Oh, Blue-eyes . . ."

She had come here to save her kind. She wasn't doing a good job so far. Was this one charizard worth all she had gained, and all she had the potential to do? 

On her computer she looked again at Blue-eyes. A fire raced into her blood. 

_You can't sacrifice everything for one person. When you save him, what next? How can you salvage their trust?_

Trust? This was someone's life. And Brett could care less. Julian--Brett's father--would have hopped on the tube with her; he had believed in making waves, in trying.

She had to be on the subway tonight. To be a free Pokémon--to legally travel alone, protected against capture--you needed a free-Pokémon ID tag. But Chivonne had never gotten one, knowing she had more money and clout as Brett's. You had to apply for it and that took time. And how many petite, gold, female charizards were there in the area? She could easily be identified as the "last charizard", and no matter what, she was conspicuous. 

She shut the computer down and lounged on her bed again. Any moment now it could be too late.

Brett would have to forgive her. She was making his money.

Chivonne clawed through her closet, which she never went into. She found a small red leather purse, dusted it off, and took two Poké Balls and a wad of bills from her desk. After a moment's thought she also grabbed her brass ID tag with her name, Brett's, and their phone number. Brett was just winding up August's bath as she jumped out the window and flew. She had moments to escape. He would know she was gone the instant she left the property.

Landing, she folded her wings and walked into the indoor station, clutching the purse. She paid for just one ticket. The sun was setting through the dusty windows high up. Brett would be looking for her by now. She pushed feelings of guilt aside; he had tried to stop her from saving someone's life. People stared, but Chivonne ignored them and kept on guard for teenage boys, the ones most likely to pull something. She shrugged and moved her neck around the small necklace she had donned at the last minute to look more independent and "civilized". Her ownership ID tag lay hidden in the purse; she couldn't risk being sent home.

She knew the chance she was taking. She had seen the footage of the dark cage where Dorien had crammed his Pokémon; the torture devices, and the filthy Poliwag pool. The Jynx they had found starving in a dark recess (now recuperating and recovering its speech at the shelter). 

But this was Blue-eyes. She would never sleep again if she did not try. If she was caught and held for ransom, her money could buy her out. Money couldn't bring Blue-eyes back alive. 

Joining the protest would only waste time. And would the people in charge listen to a charizard, even with her money behind her? She had sensed all along that this would have to be a breakout. 

The tube's approach hummed through her feet and stomach, the vibrations caused by the powerful air jets on which it hovered. It began slowing a few miles ahead, then stopped, nearly silent on the track. The doors slid open. Chivonne fell in among the people, a golden slip among earth-toned fall coats, wrapping her tail close in front of her. She ducked her head and stepped onto the platform.

"Wait a minute!" a woman shouted. "Whose Pokémon is that?" Chivonne peeked back over the boarding peoples' heads to see a tall, muscular woman running towards her. Her black shirt showed the word SECURITY in white letters. Chivonne couldn't have thought it would be so easy. Her tail squeezed around her hip as the woman walked up, the flame tip against her armpit, lighting her face from the side.

"No live flames allowed these cars," she pointed to Chivonne's tail, "you'll have to ride in a ball or in car 31. Can I see some ID?"

Chivonne rummaged in her purse, then took a breath. 

"I left it at home. But this is an emergency--"

"Whoa, you can talk." The woman smiled. "I'm sorry but you'll have to go and get it. The next tube'll be here in just a half hour."

"Wait, I have. . ." Chivonne pulled out her owner ID, praying she would just glance at it. Chivonne was about to put it back away when the woman's fingers seized it and held it where it was. She squinted at it.

"Whoa. You're the Kasper charizard. The last charizard?"

Chivonne felt weak. "Please, someone's life is in danger. Just this once--I have to get on board."

People were gathering around, and looking through the car windows. Someone snapped a picture.

"We have to verify it with your owner." The lady looked at the phone number on the tag, mouthing the numbers. She whipped a video phone from her pocket. Chivonne stroked her tail absently as she stared out at all the people; two more pictures flashed. Chivonne's wings opened, her tail unwound and swished, waving the people back. Heat was building in her fire stomach. Looking at the dirty concrete ground, she forced herself to hold still. The last thing she wanted now was a scene.

The video screen never came on; they talked the old-fashioned way. The woman paused on the phone. 

"I'm sorry, your owner said no."

"Tell him he can forget the tournament."

The woman repeated it, paused, and said, "Um. . .okay. Yes, you're welcome, we'll take care of it." She put the phone away.

"He said you have permission."

"Thank you so much," Chivonne stepped around her. "Where's car 31--"

"It's full. You'll have to ride in a ball. We'll hold onto you, it's completely safe--"

"No, I don't travel in Poké Balls."

"Then you'll have to wait half an hour. Is that all right?"

Chivonne felt uneasy.

"Can I see car 31?"

"It's closed."

The last passengers were boarding. "Can I look in the window."

The woman was growing huffy. "It's usually a cargo space, it's full of suitcases. Just wait a half hour," she said as the tube doors closed and the thing began to move away. 

Chivonne nodded her head once, like a swan preening. She looked the woman in the eye. *I don't like liars.* "Thank you." She walked quickly away through the parting crowd, wishing her legs were longer. 

"Where are you going?" called the lady. Chivonne broke into a run. Behind her, someone was weaving through the people; Chivonne didn't look long enough to see who. So much for not making a scene. She would have to fly to Crimson City, observed by all below, and it would take several hours even at top speed. Oh, the time she'd lose! 

Chivonne reached the nearest door, tugged it open and ran out into a wide alley and cool air, under a dark twilight sky. She breathed relief. 

Someone burst through the door behind her. In the light of her tail three teenage boys, one by one, popped out, hands gripping Poké Balls. Chivonne puffed out fire, lashing her tail as she scampered backwards and spread her wings. Their arms wound back and threw.

"Ivysaur, go,--"

"--Poliwhirl!"

"--Scyther, Krabby, I--"

"Starmie!"

Pokémon surrounded her and the air flew alive with attack orders. 

"Vine Whip--"

"Water Gun!"

Chivonne sprayed a scribble of fire down at the Pokémon as she took flight. A vine lashed around her foot and yanked her down. "Krabby, pinch!" The Krabby ran toward her, but she leaped, thrusting herself forward, and instead of pinching it smacked her bodily in the chest; over the boys' shouts, she heard the crack. Chivonne roared and unleashed a fire plume onto the huge crab just as two sprays of water struck her back and side. She dodged. Her next flamethrower frayed out, closed orange jaws around the Krabby's shell. Chivonne swooped toward the Ivysaur and slashed. It screamed as her foot flung it across the asphalt. "Starmie, water gun--" She ducked the water spray of a Starmie and swung her tail. It flew against the brick alley wall, charred. Her head turned to spit fire at the Poliwhirl. 

"Scyther, Swords Dance!"

In the sky, the Scyther's eyes gleamed, its muscles tightened. Then it attacked. Chivonne whipped her head back and firespun. Engulfed, the Scyther shrieked and fell, a flaming starfish. The Poliwhirl shot water again. . .and then the rope of water went limp, dribbling to a stop. 

Someone stepped outside. Chivonne watched the boys retrieve their injured Pokémon and scatter into the dark. Too weak to fly just yet, she landed for a breath.

"Hey, break it up. That's a trained Pokémon and it's illegal to battle on the streets." 

Another man stepped out. Brett. "Yeah, that's her. Thank you so much."

"No problem."

Brett looked at her in her firelight and exhaled.

"Chivonne. Are you okay."

In fact, that rush may have been what she needed to unload.

"I'm fine."

"I've been worried sick over you. What are you doing here." He went over to her; she stood stiffly, water steaming off her.

"Going to Crimson City."

"I can't believe you." He touched her dripping arm. 

"Is there something wrong with me for wanting to--"

Brett spun in a half circle on his heel. His hands flew up, curled like tree branches. "I explained to you at home--"

"Why his life doesn't matter? You know that if he were human--"

"You can't do anything to--"

"Because you won't let me! You've given up but I haven't! Stop imprisoning me! I care! This matters!"

Chivonne looked around at the small bunch of people gathering outside the door, including three more security personnel. Brett stepped over and touched her shoulder. "You're making a scene."

Chivonne slapped his hand away and growled.

Brett took out an Ultra Ball. "I would hate to force this. Please, just come home with me."

"You told that woman to lie to me. You lied to me."

"You scared me. Look at yourself."

Chivonne lowered her chin.

"Chivonne we have a big match coming up, in just a few days."

She laughed without smiling. "Not anymore." Her sky-blue wings spread and lifted. Brett threw the Ultra Ball.

Chivonne swerved, tail whipping. The ball caught her wing. The battle with the boys' Pokémon had weakened her enough to trap her inside.

  
  
  


18: Vixen

  
  
It was after dark. Vixen's head hung low as she walked through the Vermillion City streets, trying to keep the light rain off her face. The garbage can and dumpster fare had been poor today. It was time to make another humiliating visit to the food bowl on the stoop of the electronics store. 

She had no idea of the time. "It had better be open." 

The store lights were on, as was the main TV in the window. _Yes._ Vixen stepped around a petrified black pancake of bubble gum and sat on the stoop, barely out of the rain under the narrow awning. She raised her head and yipped, then sat waiting for the elderly man to bring her food. On TV, some kids and an Eevee ran around singing about how great some fruit snack was.

The sports news came on. The winners of today's major tournaments were listed and key battle scenes shown in slow motion. _Where are you. I'm hungry._

Vixen glanced around, but the streets were mostly empty and the few people passing by probably assumed she was owned. The leather collar the store owner had given her helped deter would-be catchers. That was the only reason she hadn't flamed the annoying thing off her neck.

The news story caught her ear. 

"Despite widespread protests and the threat of riots, the Crimson City charizard was put down by lethal injection one hour ago by the veterinarian and manager of the Crimson City Pokémon shelter, under orders agreed on by the eight High Gym Leaders and the Elite Four."

"As if that species needs another dead one," said Vixen.

The screen switched to a man indoors, saying, "He did not suffer, it did not take long, he never felt a thing."

Vixen could always tell when a male was lying through his teeth.

"The animal caused panic and terror in Crimson Gym three days ago when it flamed its trainer in the face. This victim of animal cruelty is nonetheless considered too dangerous to humans after having made the kill. Dorien Lowry, age 18, died his home of his injuries yesterday morning. Surviving is his mother. . . " The news showed footage of Chad flaming a man in a gym amid the screams of terrified fans, then blasting the roof and flying out. Yes, that was Mo in his arms, a little older. Vixen put her paws up on the window. The screen flicked back to the news anchor, with a picture of the killed guy up in the corner.

"Dorien Lowry was born in Lavender Town and lived there with his mother and father at a small private gym south of LavenderTown. Dorien's father was killed in a tournament accident at a private gym near Vermillion City seven years ago. . ." 

It switched to old footage of a scene where an Onix, in a battle move, swung its tail back too far and whacked out a metal girder supporting the balcony. The man on it tumbled to the floor and died. ". . .Lowry thus inherited his father's gym, and had it renovated shortly before his death." 

The news anchor's face came up again. "We take you live now to Poké City, where a riot near the intersection of Gengar and Koffing Street, a major site of earlier protests, is being brought under control by police. Officials say as many as 5 people may have been killed. . ."

Vixen's mouth fell open. Tears came to her olive-green eyes.

"That's right, Glenda," said the reporter on the scene. "Well you can still smell the smoke from the small fires begun when rioters set several shops ablaze beyond those police cars and fire trucks down Koffing Street." The camera swung in that direction. "The damaged and looted shops were all human-owned. At least two employees were killed and dozens more people have been injured; the death toll is expected to rise. Poké City officials are advising that all human citizens stay inside their homes, it is still the safest place during this crisis, we have reports of people being attacked in the streets--"

"You can't be dead, Chad! How could you do this to me!"

The store owner stepped out on the stoop, holding a dish of food. "Vulpix? Was that you? Vulpix!" he called, looking in either direction. Vixen was already around the corner, running fast down a teary blur of sidewalk. Her tails flew out behind her in the downpour. Poké City. She would go to Poké City.

Exhausted, Vixen took refuge beneath the eave of a Dumpster. She howled and howled into the rainy sky.

  
  
  


19: A Flame for Blue-eyes

    Lunia was the first thing Chivonne saw when she flashed from the Poké Ball into the living room, the carpet solidifying under her feet. The girl glared down at her, almost like another charizard.  
    "August was worried sick. You got a lot of nerve making Dad run all over the place 'cause you wanted to have fun in the city. You spoiled brat."  
     "That's enough Lunia." Brett stood with his hands behind his back. Chivonne turned to him, head lowered.  
     "What day is it."  
     Brett backed away from the glowering charizard. "I didn't want--"   
     "What day is it."   
    "October 28th."   
    Two days later. Chivonne's eyes blurred and she blinked them. "He's dead isn't he."   
    "I knew you would be angry, I wanted to spare you the agony--"   
    "I hate you!" The words rode out on fire. She sprinted out the door and let it swing open in the wind as she ran into the field. The sun shifted behind clouds as she lifted off her feet, catching the air under her wings. She roared a pillar of flames high in the air.   
    "Chivonne!"   
    August ran down the porch steps, taking them one by one, and bounded out into the grassy field, cold without his windbreaker in the late afternoon. The grass slapped his pants legs as he ran past the old enclosure. He watched Chivonne's slender gold body take flight, tail whipping down, then level with the rest of her as she caught the wind, flapping furiously. Someday his dad would let him ride her up there. "Chivonne, come back!"

     At one corner of the property rose an outcropping of boulders, the highest points almost a small cliff. She circled down, landed, and flamed a boulder till it slumped in a shining syrup onto the surrounding rock. She watched it cool to orange, red, then black. Below the rock outcropping, past the overgrown wood fence, rolled the hills of Gloomleaf Forest's edge. She hadn't been out there in almost a hundred years. A few of the rich green trees were fading to orange and yellow at the edges. The fence looked ordinary, but flying past it, even high above, would activate the microscopic computer chip embedded somewhere in her body, sending a radio signal to the house. She had told them they could trust her out here.   
    Brett had told her she could trust him with a Poké Ball.   
    Nothing lay out there for her now in Gloomleaf, anyway. What she wanted was on this side of the fence.  
    All her efforts: her decision to be trained, self-schooling in human speech, all the money made from the battles was turning out useless. Those creatures of a moment really did rule the world. They could kill a Pokémon in cold blood and not go to jail; even the abuse of Pokémon resulted only in having one's license revoked. They had killed Blue-eyes for defending himself.  
    "We're meat on legs. That they can throw around in a battle ring and toss out like trash!" She flamed so hard her lungs burned, making a blue-white shaft of fire; spent, she flopped on the rough stone as a breeze rustled the trees and rose cold around her, making her tail flame stoke up. "Oh, Blue-eyes." Her eyes were sore and her head drooped. Having gone into a Poké Ball at evening, her body thought it was night.

     Chasing an oddish under the shade of trees, through the brush, over rocks, leaves underfoot. . . that was one of her earliest memories. She didn't even remember whether the thing had gotten away or become the young gold charmander's meal. Though always small for her age, she began hunting earlier than normal, before growing wings. Long before the hundreds of charizards living in the volcanic Charmountains just south of Gloomleaf, vanished.   
    "I can't believe you were alive then," Brett, as a teenager, had said, meaning the Pokémon War. "What was it like?"  
     Terrible. A war of human issues, fought by Pokémon pressed into battle, their spirits broken in training camps that made Dorien look like Ash Ketchum. Trainers and their Pokémon scoured the skies, hunting down every charizard they could find, including young and eggs. Unless a charmander was at least several years old when caught by humans, it usually wasted and died, even if kept warm and fed a proper diet resembling regurgitated meat. Of the four of them living in their lair--Chivonne, her charmeleon sister Calora, and her parents--her father was caught first. He went hunting one day and never came back.  
    Returning from their own hunts, she and her mother were chased from their lair.  
    "Calora!" Wings flapping, fire flying from her mouth as she gusted back, her mother screamed for Chivonne's sister who had stayed behind, as a trainer's Gyarados unfurled from the cave, filling the entrance with blue. Its huge face roared at the two females, its snaky whiskers waving in the air.   
     "Fly, Chivonne!"  
     Chivonne flew high and fast, outpacing her mother and the Gyarados. When she slowed and looked back, there was nothing. Searching the lair late that day, she found no one and nothing.  
    Often at night, lying alone in the family den, she would hear the sounds of battle. she would huddle, her claws raking the walls as she heard Pokémon screaming. She moved farther into the Charmountains not long after, and still wondered today if her mother had tried to escape too, or given herself up in the hopes of finding her lost mate and daughter in the maze of the human world.   
    Once "trained," Chivonne had researched the war, combing through volumes of photos and articles, but never found out what happened to her family. She knew they had perished somehow, some forgotten soldier's forgotten monsters. Those charizards who had survived were mostly dead now or in poor shape. _Why don't they let us take care of ourselves._   
    After the war she watched the last few of her kind disappear, one by one. The few friendships she made never lasted. Always she was too quick to hide, staying one step ahead of humans. Finally she was alone.  
     The fact that she was the last free charizard in all of the Charmountains, all of Gloomleaf, dawned on her slowly. After a while she just never saw anyone. Soon it had been a year, five, ten years since she had spoken to another charizard or heard a distant roar.  
    Whenever her keen eyes caught sight of humans, whenever she smelled them, heard them coming, she could slip away. She knew all the hiding places, having become used to thinking of herself as both predator and prey.   
     Apart from their mates and offspring, charizards were solitary. Chivonne's own older sister had flown away, and many lived alone for years, quite comfortably, before finding a mate. But they eventually mated, and they knew when they were ready.   
    Chivonne had swung around a while, and approached the cusp of maturity as the war broke out. The flings were mere fun, something you could take or leave. But as years passed on her solitude, she knew her time to mate was coming, the light before sunrise. Humans might be short-lived, but they weren't going to release any males.  
     And they weren't going to stop what they were doing.   
     Chivonne had woken up one morning and circled the sky freely for the last time. She searched not for prey, but for the hunters. This day would end with a human of her choosing.   
     She chose Julian because of how he first looked at her; with an untamed, free-flowing curiosity. His eyes and voice told her not that he would conquer her, only wondered what she would choose. She watched the tall, weedy teenager poking around the forest's edge under a cloud-muddled sun, long before he turned around, knee-deep in the summer grass, and locked eyes with her.  
     Chivonne landed a scant twenty paces away; she preened her shoulder and arm with soft red flames, and stared, her head straight forward. No trainer would ever assume that a wild Pokémon, much less a wild charizard, would willingly submit to a Poké Ball.   
     "Hey there charizard," Julian said softly. Trembling, probably fearing for his life, he waited out that long moment, after which he sensed that she would not attack. His overlarge hand took the ball out, popped it open, and set it down between tufts of grass, keeping an eye on her. "I'm not gonna catch you, see. It's up to you." Chivonne knew she was looking at a creature smart for his kind. She would leave with him; the question was how. Going up to him would establish so much; far more than being caught would.   
    Julian knew it.   
    "Are you lonely?"  
    She wished he were a charizard. As she treaded through the grass, he backed away.  
     "Please. . .don't hurt me."  
     She walked to the ball and stood over it. Her body bent gracefully, from spine to small, muscular shoulder and arm, as she leaned down. Her wings pointed in the air as she closed three fingers around the smooth, split sphere. She stood up and turned it in her hands; it clapped closed. She strode over to Julian, and placed it in one of his outstretched hands. His other hand reached out, palm up, and slowly folded around her small gold one.   
     "I hadn't even been looking for Pokémon when I saw you that day," Julian later recounted. "No one believed I'd caught the land's last charizard on my first try, without even sending out others." He had not had any others. "Most people didn't even believe there was still one out there, they thought all the sightings of you were bogus."

But after that day there were no more stories of a golden charizard seen soaring on sky-blue wings. She had indeed been the last one. 

Julian told her that "before you joined me," (he never said he had caught her), "I had my license but I never caught any Pokémon. I always liked watching them in the wild, taking pictures and stuff." But Julian loved coaching Chivonne's techniques. It was he who schooled her in refining her agility moves, which few charizards could learn at all. "You're a Rapidash with wings," Julian said. No other mastered them like Chivonne, with her small supple body (five feet tall) and lightning reflexes. This agility, couple with her fire power, allowed her win almost every competition against any other Pokémon. She was called unusual. 

"You should be so proud," said Julian when she won a tournament for him or mastered a new attack. She was not proud in the way he and other humans assumed, rather she was pleased to have made this fine human happy, even if it was because she had beat someone up. Winnings and prizes, even the domination of what was often her natural prey, meant nothing. It was the personal mastery, of expanding her physical abilities, keeping (and partway satisfying) her hunting skills, which engaged her mind and enabled her to not only pass time, but make money. Like human speech, reading, writing and etiquette, money was something she learned quickly. She would buy her kind's freedom. Every Pokémon I beat up, is one more helping me with my mission to help all Pokémon. It made her feel a little less bad, knowing the pain had gained a purpose. And so she poured her energy into tournaments. When she wasn't competing or training she was researching. It helped take her mind off the freedom she had left behind.

She learned about Charizard Island--Chah to her kind--the huge island out in the ocean, home to over a thousand wild charizards. She thought about finding her way out to that last refuge. Though heavily guarded against intruders, it was not an impossible goal. But humans had captured all the ones on the mainland--tens of thousands--in a few short centuries. She would easily live to see the day Chah also fell to them, unless something were done.

Chivonne watched Julian grow up, swell taut with muscle, then shrink, wrinkled and speckled, after only a few short years. He married a younger person than himself, a woman Chivonne coolly tolerated. He'd had Brett and his older brother (who moved away) in his fifth decade of life. He had made money off battling his Pokémon, mostly Chivonne, before "settling down" late with a scant 30 years left, sliding off the slope of old age. He had pushed his species' frantic race to mate and breed to its limit. That was Julian, always procrastinating. "Julian," she said aloud just to hear his name, not spoken often anymore. For years, she still had moments when she forgot he was gone. Once in a blue moon, she called Brett Julian. 

No sooner was she through mourning and used to the new arrangement than her new trainer, Brett, was sprouting up like a puppy. He married a woman who, unable to tolerate Chivonne and unhappy in general, had left him with one-year-old August and ten-year-old Lunia. "It's not your fault she left," Brett always said, but Chivonne knew she had been part of it. Lunia blamed her entirely. The woman hadn't liked her eating at the dinner table, babysitting Lunia or August (she never allowed her alone with the babies but Brett did) having her own bedroom, and going anywhere alone with Brett. "I want that charizard in its ball where it belongs, or I'm out," she said one day. Brett said after her departure that if a simple Pokémon could make her that ornery, they were destined to part regardless.

Chivonne knew why the wives of her trainers disliked her. They were sensing her growing desire to mate, her viability making her a third party, psychologically; and, especially, the fact that she had known their males first. That she might know them better than they ever would. That as they shriveled, sagged and spotted with age, she stayed smooth and young. 

No matter what, she could not leave while August was little. That lady may have been wrong to run out on the children, by Chah, they didn't even know where she was now. But Chivonne had vowed she wouldn't run too. 

August would keep her going through this whole disaster. Humans moved through their seasons so fast, that Julian's father, Julian, Brett, and August were like one male, each becoming the one before; she felt she knew August already, in a sketchy way. 

She uncurled her neck on the stone late next morning, hearing a human blunder up the boulders through the bushes below. Brett squinted as the sun hit him head-on. Chivonne gave him a hand up.

"Thanks."

He dusted himself off. "These knees, I don't know." Touching her shoulder warily, he said, "August's asking about you. Was worried about you, old girl. I can't tell you how sorry I am. I was wrong. But I didn't know what else to do."

"I know."

"You ready to come back?"

She stepped away and his hand fell off. "I was always ready." She knew by his look that she hadn't managed to make him think she'd run out just to spite him. She felt ashamed of how she'd acted at the station--nothing short of Chah's divine intervention could have gotten Blue-eyes out. Though her arms ached to hug Brett, she couldn't move. 

"Oh, I'm sorry, you're sorry, let's just go home. I told August you might take him out in the fields today if you come back. We both miss you."

_There he goes, using August against me._ But Chivonne hugged him. She felt better, then as they parted, it rushed back.

"Just one thing I ask of you. Please. Humans may believe all they see on the news, but I want proof."

"Chivonne." He shook his head sadly.

"I want to see the body."

"Oh, Chivonne!" He wrung his hands.

"You can get us in."

His shout peeled off the sky, "Chivonne!" out into the vista. "Crimson City's halfway across--"

"The express would take a few hours. I'll fly you myself if I have to." Though she could not lift him.

"It will make you more upset."

"Don't think you know me better than I know me. I need to see him." Her tail flamed largely. She shouldn't let humans get her so worked up, but this was Blue-eyes, the only thing standing out from her trained life. Blue-eyes was worth more than her dignity, even in front of these folks who sprouted up like weeds and presumed to know everything, even to be able to see through her. Chivonne's eyes began to glow in a Leer. He would say no again.

"Come on, we'll take the express, since you can't fly me an inch. I got to tell Lunia she's got August for the day."

Two pairs of footsteps echoed in the corridor. 

"I admit," said the manager as he led Brett down the way, "not many people come to see this because their Pokémon wanted to. In fact you're the first." 

"It just made her very nervous." They arrived in the morgue. "They can be sensitive to what they see on television. I think she just wants to make sure he's dead and she won't ever have to battle him."

He released Chivonne in a curl of red light. Stoking up her tail to compensate for the cold, she looked quietly on as the man removed a sheet covering a big orange body lying on the table. He stepped aside and she walked to the table's edge. His tongue lolled out, dry and purple.

His eyes were closed. She would never see his blue eyes. She sniffed him and he smelled more of death than any scent he had had in life, his spices spoiled. She would never know him. This would be her only memory of him. She touched the cold hide of his shoulder.

Brett touched hers. "You all right?"

She nodded at the body.

"This is just between us." Brett stepped away toward the manager. "Please don't tell the media or anyone about this."

The manager gave a small snort, staring at the floor. "Your secret's safe. I don't want any more attention for this than I got already. This whole thing's given us a bad name."

Chivonne gave the killer of Blue-eyes a good hard look. A bad name? What about a little guilt? The man's eyes pleaded to her, as if longing to say something, or take back what he'd done._ You can't take it back. Humans destroyed my entire people. You killed my family. You slam Pokémon around for entertainment till they break, then you chuck them and grab another. And you call yourselves heroes for it._

"Well," Brett put his hands together, "are we ready to go?"

Chivonne walked over to Brett, who Poké Balled her.

"Thanks again."

"No problem. Looked like she was mourning him. Did she know him?"

"No. She just gets moody."

"Mm."

At the front exit the manager paused. "Um. . ." He lifted up his finger, then dropped it.

"There something you wanted to say?"

"No, whatever it was. . .I forgot. Have a good day, and good luck in the tournament." 

Chivonne hugged August when they walked in the front door. "He was fine," said Lunia. 

August hugged her, leaning his head on her gold chest. "I missed you."

She stroked his light brown hair. In a few more years he would be her new trainer. Trainers, like teeth, old ones falling out as new ones grew in.

"Will you tell me what you were doing now?" Lunia tapped her foot, looking up at her father.

"No. I will just say we were settling some business at Crimson City."

"So it's about Chivonne." Lunia flashed Chivonne a look.

"Lunia, don't raise your voice at me, especially not in front of August."

Lunia stomped up the stairs. Chivonne heard her door slam.

"I want you to see this." Brett popped a disk into the TV and a newsflash came up. "I taped it two days ago."

"The "last charizard" of tournament fame was among many Pokémon across the continent who showed strong opinions about the lethal injection of the Crimson City charizard. Well, we are glad to report that she has reconciled with her trainer, Brett Kasper, and will be competing in the tournament at Vermillion City as scheduled on Friday, be sure to tune in for that. Coming up next--officials say the "worst is over" in Poké City, but many human citizens are packing it in. . .details on the way along with your sports and weather."

Brett shut it off.

"You got lucky. I paid them to keep their mouths shut. Couldn't stop all of it, but two small stories? You're lucky."

"You did all you could. Thanks."

Brett went over to her. "Can we put this behind us. I hate to see you like this. Sometimes ugly things happen out there, but the sooner you're ready to put it behind you. . ."

_How dare you tell me about ugly things happening "out there."_

"I'm ready."

He patted her shoulder. "That's my girl."

Chivonne faked a smile.

"You ready for that battle? I could still withdraw."

"I'm ready."

Chivonne stayed on her computer deep into the night, saving every clip and picture of Blue-eyes that she could find. She saved all the files to a disk, deleted them from the hard drive, and labeled the disk with a circled "B". She touched it to her closed mouth.

She slid the bottom drawer of her desk slowly shut; the light cast on the disk narrowed and finally went black. Chivonne lay on her bed and cried herself to sleep.

  
  
  


20: Reflection

  
  
     "Careful, don't light my rug. You probably haven't been house trained, have you." Jade shook her head. "You're bigger than I thought. I'm afraid I didn't think this through. I put stuff out of the way, but everything here is flammable!"

Chad stood on soft, brown moss-like stuff, on a completely flat (human-made) surface, and looked around. On one wall was a big bay window, and tons of strange objects everywhere else. He could tell by looking that this whole place could just roar up in yellow, like leaves. This woman had saved his life, returning the debt she insisted she owed him. He owed her the peace of mind that he wasn't going to torch her lair. 

Mo came capering in from another room. "Hi, Chad! Like this place? I do."

"Yeah Mo, not bad." He wiggled his toes, liking the cushiony feeling of the rug. 

Jade smiled. "Like my carpet?"

He nodded. 

"Well I already fed Meowth, and I have a bowl waiting for you. Watch your tail!" 

Chad's thick tail had been flowing in its usual motions behind him. He curled it in front and followed her and Mo into another room full of objects. He was not particularly hungry, but why not.

"This is my kitchen." Jade gestured towards a bowl of food on the floor, but Chad was already smelling it. He found the pre-moistened pellet shapes too small to finger conveniently, so he picked up the bowl and buried his snout. Its strong flavor resembled meat. When he finished the little serving, Jade poured him another from a big paperish bag and put that away in the cabinet. It satisfied him for now, but she was in for a surprise when he got truly hungry.

"Like that CharChow, don't you. The number one recommended brand. Just don't go poking into the cupboards--too much will make you sick. My goodness, I'm going to have to buy another bag soon," she said, eyeing the suggested serving sizes on the side panel. 

    In minutes Chad was leisurely licking the bowl clean. He licked his hands, then flamed them. Jade stepped back. "My goodness. I hate to bug you but be real careful with those flames in here." She chuckled. "I'll have to do some remodeling." 

Chad looked out the curtained window. He could easily make a dash for freedom. But his tail flame lost that brief swell. After the last attempt he wasn't so sure. He would wait and see. 

The smell of meat turned his head. Jade backed away from a tall cube, lit from within and very cold inside. She closed the cube door and presented him with a big slice of meat on a plate. Chad stuffed the cold but otherwise freshly cooked meat in his mouth, and swallowed it nearly whole, sad that the pleasure had ended so soon. 

     "Same appetite you had back then. Breaks my heart to think of what _he_ fed you. Well we'll beef you up."

"How did you get me out?" he asked, forgetting she couldn't understand him.

"How did. . .what?"

Chad repeated himself, helping it along with hand gestures, and she said, "How did I rescue you? I convinced the owners that you were my old friend, and they sure believed me when I got you into that Poké Ball. But we'd better see what they're saying in the news. You may not be out of hot water yet."

Chad followed Jade back into the first room. She picked up a black thing and pointed it towards a big shiny rectangle on the wall. "Now pictures are going to come up on there, in case you never saw a TV." Instantly people and things appeared on the screen, like a false window. Chad went up and touched it, then backed up and concentrated on what was actually going on.

On the news, after wading through sports, weather, two other stories and countless commercials, they said the Crimson City Charizard was dead.

"Apparently they passed another body off as you," said Jade.

So he was dead here too. Chad wondered who his double had been. How had _he_ died?

The reporter began a report on Pokémon abuse.

"Although the incident at Crimson City was tragic, some positive things have grown out of it. One is the discovery of dozens of cases of Pokémon abuse that went on right under neighbors' noses." Scenes came up of people whipping Pokémon, beating them, and yes, electrocuting them. Chad lashed his tail, growling at the screen.

"Blaze. You have to watch the tail. If a fire starts in here it'll burn down my entire home. That's just an image on there, sweetie."

He gave her an I-know nod. But he wasn't sure how this thing was making those pictures. Must be magic.

"I see abuse left and right," said a fair, red-haired nurse, her face larger than life on the screen. "Just yesterday I treated another Magikarp for bludgeon wounds and whip marks. If you have any experience in treating these animals you can tell the difference between battle wounds and abuse. I would love to see those trainers put behind bars. But I can't spend time pursuing every case. Usually it can't be proved, and new victims come in every day. It is common practice, and not just among beginners. I know of seasoned trainers and even Elites who have done it. The competition is steep. And what many people don't realize is that a Pokémon will often remain with an abusive trainer, as long as it receives attention. They are loyal."

The scene switched to the yellow face of a Kadabra--or was it an Abra? Kadabra, Chad decided as she began to speak, in human. 

"It happens all the time, behind everyone's back," said the Kadabra, chewing gum. She stood outside, the fur on her cheeks ruffling, speaking into a windy microphone. "My trainer beat me senseless."

"How did you come to be here in Poké City?" asked the reporter.

"I slammed the son of a Persian on the ceiling! And teleported. I was so stupid. I could've left at the beginning. I felt like I had to please him and be honorable. See this?" She turned around, shoving her shoulder toward the screen, pointing to it. A long scar knotted the yellow fur. "He gave me that. Well I think we can give it back. I'm going to school now. Some Pokémon are as smart as humans."

"Well," said Jade, "I guess we're safe now, Blaze." She flicked off the screen. 

"I owe you my life." Chad stared out the big bay window. A couple of Pidgeys flew down among freshly fallen yellow leaves. They pecked and scratched on the short grass, wings fluttering.

"Oh you want to go outside, don't you?"

He was allowed outside? Chad's tail flame bloomed; his claws clicked against the window pane.

"Wait, before you go out. I have to make a few things clear. You can't ever be released. Your DNA--it's a code inside your body, and it never changes--that code is recorded by humans now. All they have to do is hold up a little device, blip it and it's scanned--and they'll know you're the same charizard who killed that trainer. Not that I blame you. DNA. . .that's going to be our main problem."

A code inside his body? Chad's tail lowered as he looked out at the clear blue sky. Another sunny day.

"But you can go outside all you want. You just can't go past certain areas or humans will catch you. And I can't save you a second time. I got this for you." She had Chad hold out his wrist, and she clipped a cloth bracelet around it with a little round gray thing. She tightened it snug. "If it beeps, just fly back toward this house. You'll be on our property at all times. My house has tons of open space. I know it's not Charizard Island but it's the best I can give you." She opened the door. "Enjoy. I know you'll come back. Meowth's coming too."

"Yea!" Mo bounded out the door after Chad. Chad held down his hands to give him a ride and Mo jumped into them. 

Chad felt a breeze picking up. He lifted his wings, pushed with his strong legs. And he soared above the trees. His neck stretched to the blue.

"Put me down!" Needly claws pricked his hands. 

"What?" Chad looked in confusion at Mo. The little kitten's body was trembling. Chad landed at once.

"I'm sorry. I just keep remembering when they shot at us in the sky. And the glass. . ."

Chad flew solo, his enjoyment of flying, and flaming, marred by Mo's new fear. Humans, like charizards, could be good or bad. Because of bad ones, Mo would never be that same kitten who had cried out in exhilaration at the feel of flight. 

Afterwards, Chad lay on his back and basked in the last long rays of sun, lighting the grass once but quickly putting it out at Mo's shriek. He had gone into the Poké Ball last evening, skipping a night's sleep. He had to find, or create, someplace safe to lie out here. (Yawn) Tomorrow. 

He could hardly believe that he now had a future. The grass beneath his back and wings felt unreal. 

"This is only temporary," said Chad to Mo who sat on Chad's belly. The sun had dipped behind the trees. "A few seasons, few years, we'll find our way back to Chah."

"So we can stay for a few years?" said Mo.

"Yeah, probably, we're in a pretty tight situation right now, at least I am."

Mo yawned, showing tiny, sharp white teeth. "I like Jade. I'm glad we can stay."

Mo fell asleep after that. Good idea. Chad closed his eyes.

Jade called, "Blaze, Meowth," Chad woke up. It was getting dark. He carefully scooped up Mo, who stirred but stayed asleep as Chad carried him in and placed him on the couch. 

Jade stroked Mo lightly; he flexed his paws. "Frisky always liked to sleep there. My old Eevee, bless his soul. Well, follow me, I have a place you can sleep."

Chad followed her down the stairs, tail in front of him. He was ready to sleep anywhere.

"Here we are. The basement. I cleaned the stuff out, that junk had to go anyway. Hope you like it."

Chad glanced around the empty room, illuminated by his tail. The floor and walls were made of masonry, with pipes running along two corners. It looked wide enough one way for him to stretch his wings. 

"Just keep the tail away from the pipes, we could bring cinder blocks down here or something to make a border. Otherwise, it's your little lair."

"Thanks." Chad stepped away from Jade and test-flamed the floor. Some dust ignited, but flickered out. It felt good to release fire, to clean out his own little spot. 

"Goodness!" Jade danced back with almost youthful energy.

"Sorry."

"Please save the fire for outdoors. Well, good-night."

She almost switched on the light, but went up the stairs. By himself, Chad circled in place, scanning the room more carefully. 

He was not alone. Through a window, in the next room, stared another charizard.

Chad suppressed a snort of flame; a blue flick escaped anyway. At the same time, the other male let out an identical flame, with a surprised expression. Chad raised his left hand and wiggled his three fingers; the other charizard dittoed. This was a reflection. Chad crossed the floor and touched the window; he realized it was an object hung on the wall; there was no next room. Was this really him?

Almost all his life he had thought he was ugly. The other charmanders had never given him reason to give the shadowed image in still water the benefit of the doubt. His mother had always reassured him of his gorgeous face, but he'd assumed she was humoring him.

Maybe he wasn't a drop-dead gorgeous hunk. But he was handsome. Chad looked at himself from an angle. He fanned his broad blue wings, swished his tail and let out a little fire. He turned around, craned his neck to see his rear. He lowered his chin and postured, growling. Aside from his big bones, and feet, he was well-proportioned. And if he ate every day like today he would recover his weight. He stepped close and looked at his eyes. They really were vivid cerulean blue. His best feature. 

Despite this self-discovery, he felt disappointment that it was just his reflection. It felt like centuries since he had seen another of his own kind.

  
  
  


21: First Snowfall

  
  
  
     "Take care of yourself out there Blaze," Jade said next morning after Chad and Mo finished a breakfast of Pokémon food with bacon on the side. Chad sprang for the door. 

"Come on, Mo."

"Nah," said Mo, hopping onto Jade's lap as she sat at a kitchen chair. _"Meowth."_ he yawned. "Bye. Have fun."

Chad's wings scythed high through the sky on the early morning flight; he was searching for prey before he knew it. Old habits died hard, and with charizards, old habits were very old. He wasn't hungry, but a flight always felt good. Jade had said, "we have tons of open space. It comes of having good Pokémon breeders in your family."

Chad hadn't flown far before the bracelet on his left wrist gave the warning beep, hard to hear in the strong winds. He found his boundaries quickly; humans and charizards clearly differed on the meaning of "tons of space" (if there was such a thing?). Still, after living in a cramped, windowless cage, he wasn't complaining. 

"Enough room to stretch my wings and have some sport," he said, picking out two young Pikachu foraging among stands of trees. He saw nothing larger than a Pikachu on the whole flight--only a Pidgey and a few Spearows. This region looked so lush; puffy with trees and coated with grass. It should be crawling with Pokémon. 

He shouldn't have got his hopes up of seeing another charizard. Riuni had said they were rare and getting rarer, due to insufficient breeding. But Chad knew that plenty of mating went on at Chah (all without him). If only he had asked those Raichu more questions.

"Wait." Chad let himself glide as a thought hit. This land was the source of the human trouble that had begun to plague Chah. He had to find out how to stop it. "Because by Chah, I'm not returning home till I have something to show for it!" In fact, he couldn't. In addition to saving the other charizards, stopping the humans might be his only chance to redeem himself. In only six more years humans would strike there again. He didn't care that it was a long shot, he had to try. 

Chad retired early after an evening flight. He was still recovering from Dorien, coming back from the edge. It felt almost like walking in another life. 

Jade was sitting on the end of the couch by a lamp, Mo in her lap. Mo's paws were loosely tangled in red yarn as he lay listening to Jade telling a story. 

". . .And the little Eevee said, `Jolteon, will you help me harvest this grain?' But Jolteon said, `Little Eevee, I have to run and play.' So Little Eevee walked and walked and at last she found Flareon." Jade looked up from the flat object propped up on her lap. "Hi, Blaze."

"Hi," said Mo as Chad passed by. Jade continued the story. "And she said, `Flareon, will you help me. . .' "

Chad stood by the edge of the basement stairs, listening. Jade didn't stumble once on her words, and rarely glanced away from the object she was looking at. Had she memorized it? 

After Jade was done she folded the object like two halves coming together, and set it on the coffee table. She placed Mo on the couch and went into the kitchen. Mo curled up again, sleeping. Chad picked the object off the table and opened it. 

All he saw were rows of tiny lines and dots. He turned each page and found only more rows. He heard Jade coming in with coffee and cookies; he put it down.

"Get some sleep, Blaze, you look so tired," said Jade setting the plate on the table. "It must have been all that flying around." She picked up the story-object and went over to a shelf that Chad had overlooked; up until now he had focused on the out-of-doors. She slipped it in between others of its kind. The whole shelf, near ceiling height, held five solid levels of them. Chad shook his head in wonder, then with his tail in front of him he waddled down the stairs to bed.

About a week after their rescue, Chad and Mo lay on the living room floor playing with a pack of cards. It was raining hard. The weather here was cold, too, compared to Chah. As Mo rolled on his back batting a card in the air, Chad studied the little pieces of cardboard. They had, among other designs, some of the same squiggles as in the thing he'd peeked in.

"I'm going shopping, boys," Jade called from the kitchen. "Blaze will you be so kind and watch Meowth."

"Sure." Chad poked Mo's stomach and sauntered into the kitchen. Mo giggled and swatted, too late, at his hand.

Jade was scribbling on a paper which she stuck on the fridge with a magnet. "Just a few reminders for later. Bye, be careful with the tail and take care of things. You're the man of the house now." She chuckled, slung her purse over her shoulder and left.

Mo playing with the cards again, pouncing and running with amazing energy. 

Ordinarily Chad was more interested in the fridge's interior, but now he studied the "reminders" Jade had tacked up. There was something he was missing about those scrawls.

He flipped through a magazine, and saw pictures plastered with blocks of rows of symbols. The ones Jade stared at. He remembered the white board hung over his stall at the auction, and the nurse at the Crimson City Gym scribbling on a yellow paper. 

Jade walked in, grocery bags in hand, to see Chad sitting on the couch turning pages in one of her books. Chad looked up and slammed it shut.

"Why Blaze, I didn't know you could read. Do you like that book?"

"I. . . don't get it, really. . . what is it?" He pointed to the page, shaking his head and shrugging. 

"Oh!" She covered her mouth as she laughed. Putting her bags down, she took the book, turned it around, and placed it back in his hands. "You're saying you can't read?"

"Yeah. Is there a way I could?"

She paused, knotting her brow slightly. "You would like to learn?"

He nodded, picking up the grocery bags for her.

Her whole face broke out in smile. She clasped her hands together. "We can start today."

Jade got some blank paper and a pen. She sat down with him at the kitchen table and began writing out characters, explaining about them. "When you string them together, they make words," said Jade. "Don't be frustrated if you don't understand right now. Not all Pokémon can learn to read, but I know you can."

Although she was speaking human, and he Pokémon, the letters worked for both. That must be the magic that he had heard someone say once that the Pokémon language had. Good thing, because he couldn't make his tongue form human sounds.

He took all day just to hold the pencil right. "It's a good thing you've got thumbs," said Jade as she pried the pencil from his left fist and placed it into his right hand so it rested on his finger and under his thumb. Both side fingers were opposable, all the better for ripping meat off a carcass. "Just don't let those claws get in the way." Now Chad was glad it was raining. All the better to keep him in, learning the skill he could use to tell humans that they must stop hurting his kind.

Not to mention telling Jade his name.

The weather grew colder as the days passed. The leaves that were so colorful turned out to be short-lived; they fell from the trees leaving them barren in a few weeks. But as it grew colder, he made his reading lessons longer. 

Chad liked to get outside for a "hunt" at least once a day, even though he was well-fed and gaining back his weight, plus some. He filled out nicely and his scales glowed with health. Though he liked to catch Pidgeys and Spearows, dig up digletts or swipe at Rattata, he didn't hunt with the fervor that he had back home.

His first try at writing degenerated into scrawl. So did his next twenty. The hands were lagging behind the brain. 

"I must get a computer and teach you typing," said Jade at the end of the long, fruitless lesson. "I used to own one, got rid of it since I never email--I talk on the phone. I suppose charizards don't have the fine motor skills humans do."

Chad frowned at the pages of spidery scribbles.

"My daughter Jasmine and son-in-law John must meet you," said Jade at dinnertime. She now served him at the table instead of the floor, and he had his own stool now; though chopsticks, like writing, seemed beyond him. He used a fork, though he would rather use the hands Chah had given him. "They breed Eevees for a living. This weekend I'm going over there and I'll bring both of you if you like. Don't worry, they know about it."

Chad agreed. He was itching to go somewhere.

When Chad came out of the Pokéball he first noticed the new smell--animal, Eevee--then the two strangers staring at the big dragon in the middle of their living room with his tail on fire. Chad heard an Eevee; he looked over and saw two of them, one brown, one white, on a couch. Then he heard more Eevees, and more. 

"Eui! Eui! Euiiiiiiiiii!" Eevees all over the room screamed, all gone from sight within seconds. 

"I'm so sorry." Jade covered her mouth.

"That's fine, they've just never seen one before, my babies have never been in a battle ring! That's some charizard," said the young woman Chad took to be Jasmine. "They look so big indoors." The little black Eevee struggled wildly in her arms; Jasmine yelped in surprise. "He won't hurt you, Midnight, he's just visiting."

Not convinced, Midnight squeaked and jumped out of her hands. It ran behind the couch.

"I'm so sorry."

"Mom, it's okay. How long have you had--this Pokémon? He'll burn your house down!"

Chad shook his head. Jade shook hers. The husband, John, laughed.

"I've had him over a month," said Jade.

"I hope you know what you're doing," said Jasmine. "I've seen those things at tournaments, a friend of ours had one, he had to trade it away because it wouldn't listen."

"He listens to me because I listen to him. I don't make him battle. I saved him from lethal injection down at the shelter." She paused. "I bailed him out. I owed it to him. This is Blaze, who saved my life on Charizard Island."

"Wow." She went up to Chad, her eyes full of fascination and a little fear. "Hi Blaze," she said, waving her fingers. "Never thought I'd meet the charizard from my mom's photo album."

"Hi."

Her eyelids fluttered at the deep voice. "You've got to excuse me. I just raise show Eevees."

He smiled. "I won't hurt'em."

"Would you like to see him write?" said Jade. "I'm teaching him to read and write."

"I would love to."

Jasmine got a pencil and paper while John cleared the kitchen table. Humans just couldn't avoid making a charizard perform in some way. "Just try your best," said Jade. "Show'em how smart charizards really are." So he was representing his entire species. But the slippery pencil wouldn't stay in position.

"No, Blaze, it's easier with one hand."

"I think he's left-handed, Mom," said Jasmine. "Blaze. Try switching." 

Chad found it easier, and once he got used to the pencil in this hand he started in on the same characters he had been trying to write on all the other papers.

Jade watched over his shoulder. "Very good. You're the first person in this family who's left-handed. What are you writing?"

At last he finished, at last.

"Chad?" Jade said picking up the paper. Chad pointed a claw at himself. "Your name is Chad?" Chad nodded. "What a handsome name. . ." Jade trailed off, watching Chad take a fresh paper and start in on a second word. 

"Mo?"

Chad pointed to the kitten who sat on the table watching. Mo had not caught onto reading, lacking ability and interest. 

"Why, Blaze--I mean Chad--that's wonderful! Such nice, simple names. I'm proud of you."

Chad wanted to write that he was named after Chah, like all charizards. He wanted to write about where he came from, his family, Vixen, even about being untouchable. He wanted to tell Jade all the stories and legends. But that would take months, if not years. He missed talking with an adult. 

"I believe you're a good enough reader now that you could handle childrens' books," said Jade one cold winter day as Chad finished watering all her house plants. "On my next trip to the library I could get you something to read for pleasure, not just lessons. And I know what you might like." Jade's eyes twinkled knowingly. "What about a book on volcanoes? Childrens' books are full of pictures."  
Chad was nodding. "Yes." He wanted to see pictures on the sacred subject. Who knew how long it would be before he saw a real one again.

"Some. . ." he looked hard at the first word on the first page in the thin book, "sometimes." 

Sometimes it gets so hot deep under the world's. . . "Surface," he said. . . .that rock melts. Melted rock under the ground is called magma.

He was reading a book, like Jade. And not just lessons, he was reading about something. Even though you could see nature shows on TV, he'd never hunted through the guide long enough to find one on volcanoes. The book explained in simple terms, with cool pictures, about eruptions, tremors, almost everything that happened on Chah. 

Without a single mention of Chah the Great Burning One, Himself.

"Hmm." He picked up another volcano book. Jade had found him three.

Long ago, some people believed that Pokégods of fire created eruptions when they were angry, read one book. But there are no such things as Pokégods.

Over the course of a few days Chad stumbled and sounded his way through all three books. Jade brought more, and he struggled through those. She praised his enthusiasm.

"You must know a lot about volcanoes," she said at the end of the week, when Chad handed her the eight books. "You might have the makings of a volcano scientist. And what an ideal species to be!"

Chad watched Jade walk out the door, the book bag's handles swinging from her hand. He wasn't cut out for science. And he didn't want to read about volcanoes for awhile. It gave him a headache. Every book agreed that only melted rock and gases existed down there. And they had proof Chah wasn't real! They'd gone down and checked out the scene.

"They didn't dig deep enough." But Chad's words didn't ring with hard evidence. He'd never been down that far. People on Chah had been talking, the rumor flitting on wings for a few millennia now that Chah had died or left them, and no one understood why. Didn't it make more sense that a volcano had simply lost its hot spot, become extinct? A few of those books had been general science books, and he'd gotten a dose of the origin of life too. 

One thing was certain. Someone was wrong. 

How many times, how many places could he end up being the only one knowing the truth? 

"And being too damn dead to say anything about it?"

"The forecast is saying even more snow than they thought two weeks ago," said Jade one cold evening a month or so after Chad had become agnostic. Chad got a piece of paper and wrote, WAT IS SO.

"What is. . ." She wrinkled her brow at the paper through her reading glasses. "What is snow?"

He nodded, knowing he hadn't spelled it right. The brain was now the part that was lagging.

"I forgot they don't have that on your island. It's ice that falls from the sky and makes everything white."

Next morning Chad was awoken by scratches at the basement door--Mo. He rubbed his eyes as he padded over. 

"Chad you gotta see this!" Mo whispered, hopping up and down. Jade didn't like them making noise at the crack of dawn, because she was retired. "The snow!"

Mo bounded to the living room bay window and leaped up on the sill. Chad moved the curtain with a claw and squinted out.

White blanketed everything, thrown over every surface. The trees, the grass, the lawn chairs. Soft white flecks still floated from the sky; like an ash fall, but in opposite colors, and temperature.

"I can't believe it! Is it everywhere?" Mo ran from room to room, looking at the snow through every window. Chad was still taking in the scene from the living room.

"Good morning, don't anyone go out yet," said Jade, coming into the kitchen. "The wind's howling fierce out there."

Chad sat watching the snow fall after breakfast while Jade and Mo relaxed in the den, Mo napping while Jade chatted on the phone. Soon it would be time for reading lessons.

No one made a noise in the house. The snow fell, dashing and swirling when the wind gave a push. This was something no one back home had ever seen. No Chah legends told of snow. When Chah was above ground in the first days, everything would have been too hot for snow. If Chah was real.

He felt like he could wait here the rest of his life, always hoping some opportunity to go home would come next year. It was hard to believe that given a thousand years or so he couldn't stumble on something, but if he went home, Chizmo would be waiting. Even if Chad did stop humans from coming to Chah, would Chizmo believe him? And even if Chizmo did believe him, would he revoke the sentence? 

"That bastard'll never die."

Even if he died, the others would remember Chad's long list of atrocities. Ugh, there were just too many layers of trouble to peel off.

Well for now it sure didn't make a difference. There weren't any charizards here to avoid him or touch him, and he was "dead" here too. He had to stop dying everywhere he went.

"What this land needs is a good multi-species dating service."

Chad had once thought himself the solitary type, but in the last several years he often sought out a friend. Before his capture it had been Vixen.

He was lonely for a mate. What Vixen had told him repeatedly was only really dawning on him now. In the absence of a mate, some picked a friend to spend time with, usually of the opposite gender, but, as Chad had discovered, any species. Upon learning to read, dating-related material had been one of the first things he'd sought out on his own. What would he write? Sexy, M, 6 ft, light orange w/blue eyes, seeks. . . Chad wasn't picky about color or size. Unless she was huge. . .No, a big one might be interesting. Of course it depended on her personality. Fun-loving. Smart. Not like Vixen. 

Not that good looks didn't matter. However he'd probably dive for the first one he saw. Chah, any female would look good now! A hot thought flashed, here and gone, of grasping a female's waist from behind, squeezing her to his hips.

The snow fell gently, burying the grass. "I will wither and die before I screw."

He snickered, turned on the TV and started flipping the nature channels. At least one show about charizards was on at any time. His tail burned cozily as he stretched out on the couch. They found a way to film everything.

The snow was still falling, lightly, just after lunch. Chad decided to go out and see this stuff. 

"Chad, don't go out yet," said Jade, "You'll catch your death. It's freezing."

Chad looked outside and groaned.

"Oh, okay, I suppose you know what you can handle, But you'll be back in soon."

Chad stepped onto the untouched snow. His feet sank in. Puffs of frost exhaled from his nostrils. He shivered, then his tail flame grew, and he felt warm again, his inside heat working extra.

He walked along, his feet quite cold. Looking behind him, he saw a trail of big, widely spaced footprints. 

A hiss and a jolt of pain set him roaring. He had lowered his tail too much! Where it had sunk, the flame had melted a steaming well. This stuff was water, in a fluffy, cold form. 

"Chad, be careful," Jade called from inside the doorway. She opened the door and out bounded Mo with something red on him. Mo sank to his chest in the snow, his head and tail peeking out. Chad ran over. 

"I'm okay," said Mo, stepping into one of Chad's big prints. 

"What's on you?" 

"Jade put it on me." He scratched with a hind leg at the red sweater with mustard-colored pompoms. 

"Oh, Mo, what did she do to you? I'll help you out."

"I'll be cold without it," said Mo. Soon, however, the sweater got wet and Mo's teeth chattered. Chad peeled it off and let Mo warm himself by his tail flame. After playing in the snow they went in.

Jade set a mug of hot cocoa on the table in front of Chad, and a saucer of warm milk on the floor for Mo. "So much for an empty nest."

  
  
  


22: Lunia

  
  
  
Lunia had not wanted to accept the money her father gave her, knowing it was that reptile who had brought it in. It had probably even been Chivonne's idea.

"You need a vacation," Dad had said. She couldn't deny that. 

So here she lay on the sunny shore of Aolpulco, reading beneath a beach umbrella. She sipped her pina colada and set it back down, noticing that the handsome hunk tanning on a beach towel nearby was looking at her again through a half-closed eye.

"Hi." Lunia smiled and sipped her drink again.

The guy sat up. "I can't help but notice the book you're reading."

Lunia looked at the cover. Effective Pokémon Repellents: How to Get Those Vermin Out of Your Hair!

"Do you have Pokémon problems?" he said.

"Only one Pokémon. And nothing in here so far tells how to make someone's father fall out of love with his precious charizard."

He listened as she explained. She knew she was telling a total stranger, and a somewhat older guy at that, but she had to tell someone, someone who cared. And she was free tonight.

"I'm Daninger." The man extended his well-tanned hand out to her. She shook it.

"Lunia."

"What if I told you there was a safe, harmless, guaranteed way to get rid of her?" said Daninger. "How badly do you really want her gone?"

"How about we discuss this over dinner," said Lunia.  
  
  
  
  
    Chivonne landed herself and August near a small stream on the edge of the property. 

"Don't tell Dad this," said August, dismounting, "I don't want Lunia home." The breeze ruffled his hair, framed by trees above.

"Why not?" 

"She's so mean to you."

"Some people don't like Pokémon doing everything humans do, Lunia's one of them."

"It's more than that."

They both watched the water. Looking sideways at August she knew he remembered the fights. August yanked on a green leaf; it snapped off and the branch swayed.

He knelt down and floated the leaf on the stream. It swirled lazily before the current caught it. "Do you remember what Mom said, just before she left." 

"I was out of the house when she left, but just before I went outside, she said something about things not turning out like she'd thought. She said it to your dad. She never spoke to me. She couldn't handle me being in the house like one of the family."

"Lunia blames it on you."

"Do you?"

August just leaned his chin on his knee watching the leaves.

She stroked his back. "You know I wouldn't be angry. I was probably part of the reason she left."

August hugged her slender gold neck. "I don't. You couldn't help living here. And you're my best friend."

Chivonne hugged him back. "And you're mine." She meant it, very much. Out here, August had no other kids his age and she was likewise without peers. 

"I was hoping Lunia would just stay at Aolpulco."

"We just have to make the best of it. It'll change. Eventually she'll leave."

Chivonne wanted to fly him away from here.

As August floated more leaves, Chivonne dipped her head to drink. If she looked this closely she saw only the shiny water, the grass, stones and soil right around her. She could imagine she was back up in the Charmountains. 

She lifted her head, hearing her beeper round her neck. 

"Well, they're back," she said. August got up from the stream bank and hopped on her back. She flapped into the air with effort. He was getting too heavy to ride her. 

"Twirl!" August shouted. Chivonne spun golden in the air.

"So, I hear you have a charizard . . ." Chivonne heard a strange man's voice talking as she paused outside the back door to flame her feet clean. A tall figure, dressed in black jeans and a blue shirt, turned around at the swing of the door. August came in first, and as Brett introduced him, the stranger's eyes lit on her.

"And that's our charizard," said Brett. "Chivonne, I'd like you to meet Daninger."

"My boyfriend," came Lunia's voice from behind Daninger. Her eyes glanced at Chivonne's then skitted off. 

Chivonne held her hand out to Daninger. "Nice to meet you."

Daninger looked her up and down beneath thin black brows. He took her hand in his. Chivonne swallowed a growl in her throat as his fingers subtly felt the smooth scales and gold claws. 

"She's really something, Brett. Gold ones are hard to find. You teach her how to talk?"

"No, my father did. August, you're getting dirt all over the kitchen."

August shrank back near Chivonne. She put her hand on his arm.

"And how old are you?" said Daninger with false enthusiasm on his face.

"Ten."

"Wow."

"He's the big age," said Brett. "But when he found out that he's not journeying yet, he didn't want his license."

"I think kids should wait too. Ten's too young."

August clunked a heel on the floor; dirt specks fell off the sole of his sneaker. "I decided battling is cruel."

"What do you think that lovely lizard behind you does?" said Daninger.

"She battles for a good cause."

"A good cause?" Daninger looked at Brett.

Brett clapped his hands together. "Yes. She helps us earn money. Now, let's all sit down, dinner's about ready. You have to tell me all about Aolpulco. I haven't been there in years."

" . . . And so after it finished raining, we went on the tour. Not bad, really, considering the weather," Lunia finished.

August picked at his cooked vegetables, looking out from under his brows at Lunia and Daninger across from him. Utensils clinked; people chewed. Daninger looked at him with his deep-set eyes and August looked at his plate. Daninger went back to staring at Chivonne.

"Fascinating. She knows table manners, perfect speech, even chores," he said, referring to when she and August had set the table. Apparently he still didn't chalk her up to high and mighty humans, though, or he would be talking to her, not about her. She forked another meatball, whole, into her mouth, feeling self-conscious looking at the pile heaped on her plate. 

"She's a member of this family," said Brett. Lunia cleared her throat.

Swallowing another meatball, she looked up, meeting Daninger's stare. Her tail flame behind her flickered larger.

Daninger's hands came together under his chin, elbows resting on the table. "Amazing. Have you been in any tournaments lately?"

"One last week," said Chivonne as Brett opened his mouth. It earned her another of Daninger's smiles. She served herself noodles and sprinkled pepper. 

"Chivonne's fine in battle," said Brett. "She's known a lot of techniques for years now. We have an upcoming tournament next. . .next. . ."

"Tuesday," said Chivonne. "At Cinnabar Gym."

"Cinnabar Gym?" said Daninger to Brett. "Don't you need a team?"

"Not with Chivonne."

Eschewing human manners, Chivonne ate the whole clump of noodles off the chopsticks at once with noodles dangling, longing to get outside.

"And I hear you train Pokémon yourself, Daninger," said Brett. 

"Yup. Been doing it for. . .years. I treat my Pokémon very well," he said, with a nod at August. 

"Where are they now?" said August. 

Go August, Chivonne cheered him on in her mind. Good question. 

"In their balls. I wouldn't leave them all alone while we were on vacation. I'm releasing them as soon as I get home. Now . . . Lunia's told me you used to raise Pokémon here?"

"Yes, Nidorans and Sandshrews. When we didn't have the time, we gave'em all away. Now I just do tournaments. Mostly singles or doubles, and shows--she prefers them. Chivonne's our star."

"So, Dad." Lunia smiled. "We have something to tell you."

Brett set his sticks down. He hadn't eaten much.

Daninger took Lunia's hand, a pale frail thing in his big hand with bulging veins.

"We're engaged."

After Brett said goodbye to Daninger and closed the door, he asked Chivonne how she was. 

"I'm fine. It's Daninger you should be asking. I didn't like the way he looked at me. Did you hear the whole conversation?" It was as if he had come here to see only her.

"Well, I got to talk with Lunia anyway."

Chivonne heard everything from her room.

"You're crazy. "

"I do not like when you just state things--"

"Lunia--look at me--"

"You stop yelling, I'm right here--"

"I will not be back-talked! You're under my roof!"

"I am nineteen--"

"You are too young to get married and I do not like that man!"

"You barely know him."

Chivonne stepped out in the hallway. Down the far end they were shouting behind Lunia's closed door. 

"I know him well enough. He is strange. Chivonne herself said--"

"Oh, you're taking Chivonne's advice on my marriage! How dare you try to tell me whom I should marry when you left my mom for a Pokémon!"

The door opened and Claude marched out, seeming to fill the hall. He passed Chivonne in a whoosh and went downstairs as Chivonne made her way to August's door. 

Lunia came bursting out after him. She glared at Chivonne. 

"I hate you!" 

Chivonne fanned a thin line of fire a few feet down the hall. She had tried to stop the fighting years ago, to no avail, but this afternoon's talk with August had fired her up again. Didn't they care about him?

Lunia turned back into her room and slammed the door.

Chivonne knocked on August's door. They spent the rest of the evening in there, listening to August's music. After he went to sleep Chivonne thought about spending the night outside. It was a clear, warm May night. 

There was one thing she wanted to do first.

She locked her door, turned on the computer and opened her bottom desk drawer. She clicked up the pictures and videos of Blue-eyes, fresh and unchanged. Going to sleep on a sheltered rock outside, she felt recharged; everything that had happened today was now put in place. It could be worse.

  
  
  


23: The Rest is History

  
  
  
_6: The Gloomleaf Vileplume Mystery . . . Page 131._

Chad opened to Chapter Six in _On the Edge: Pokémon Facing Extinction,_ another book Jade had borrowed from the library. He sat in the basement, reading by his tail. 

. . . Reliable records of Vileplume colonies inhabiting the deeper reaches of Gloomleaf Forest (see Map 11.1) go back to well before the Poké War. Early accounts tell of "hundreds of bright red plumes, pollinating, dancing, or going about business as usual" (Greenleaf, 582) within the forests, but since then these elusive Pokémon, each of whose flowers contain enough poison to kill a hundred humans, have declined in number. Some experts blame the effects of the war . . .

"I gotta read up about this War," Chad mumbled. His interest in reading waned during spring and summer when he spent most of his time outside, but he liked to read most evenings. It helped him sleep. And as his education increased he couldn't avoid an interest in the troubling status of Pokémon. He had written to the government three years ago, asking them to please stop taking charizards off Chah; he never got a reply. Now he knew how naïve he had sounded. 

Environmental topics depressed him. Chad shut the book. "Humans sure like to sit around writing about everything they're doing wrong." And Chad had read that _charizards_ were an unintelligent species. From two sources!

He tapped a claw down the pile of spines, scanning for the one about charizards that Jade had said she'd found. 

_"You Can Train That Stubborn Charizard._ Oh Chah." Chad opened the slim, tattered soft cover book. This he had to see.

One - Why Won't It Listen to Me?

Congratulations! Your charmeleon has evolved into one of the most powerful Pokémon in existence. But what's this? It won't listen anymore? You swear you've tried everything to make that stubborn beast obey you. But have you really tried everything? 

You, a new charizard owner, share the same frustrations with thousands of others. Your loyal charmeleon has grown into a monster that ignores you in battle and won't stay in its ball. Most charizards raised by good trainers remain obedient, but they are one of the most headstrong species and also among the most varied in personality. After weeks or months of fruitless effort, you may be ready to trade or sell yours. Don't! This book aims to make trainers understand the psychology of this magnificent fire creature, and help you put yours in its place!

Big Babies

You may not believe it, but your charizard _wants_ to be tamed. It naps in battle and throws tantrums to test your power, rtrying to find its limitations. Like young children, Pokémon need to be dominated by a guardian figure who sets the boundaries and breaks their will. Only when you show it you are stronger, will it settle down, its psychological needs satisfied.

"I wonder if Dorien ever flipped through this junk." Chad skimmed to a chapter called More Intensive Techniques.

. . . As stated in Chapter Three, charizards respond well to physical discipline, as they are physically, rather than mentally, oriented. For this lesson, have your Raichu stand a small distance away. Give your charizard an easy command. Remember, you are not practicing techniques, but enforcing obedience. Keep the commands simple and the charizard will learn that your requests are easily within its abilities. If it refuses, tell your Raichu to apply a small electric shock. It's even better if you have a device to link your Raichu's shocks to your charizard from a remote location. (The Trainer's Catalogue '23 has many useful appliances.) Each time your charizard disregards you, have your Raichu shock it a little more forcefully. Charizards have strong constitutions and can easily withstand Raichu voltage. They will learn to associate disobedience with discomfort. When your charizard finally obeys, give it a treat and a good scratch on the head! It behaved well!

Try not to use this method too often as the lizards may develop an aggression towards Raichu. 

"This is out on the shelf for everyone!" He gripped the slim volume in both hands, claws digging into the cover. "Not anymore."

Chad took a breath, then just sighed at the last minute. Incinerating it would do nothing. Books were mass produced. In addition, Jade would have to pay for it.

As Chad flew outside, flaming the air to ease his frustration, he hit on something. 

"Why can't I write a book against that book?" He could write about Dorien. . .about Chah. . .tell them all what went on behind the scenes of those Saffron City auctions.

"It's a wonderful idea, Chad," said Jade, reading what he'd written as she fed him and Mo sushi and Poké chow for dinner, "but it wouldn't work. For one thing, you'd have to state that you're a charizard."

"That's the point." Chad said through fish. "They should know we're not stupid."

"Oh, goodness, please don't talk with your mouth full." 

Chad wrote the words down, and Jade read them.

"But they can't find out who you are. You would have to write about your former trainer, and that would certainly let the Meowth out of the bag."

Chad wrote _It's been four years._

"It's been six years, and that still isn't enough time. If you're going to write an autobiography, you would have to wait at least a hundred years, when everyone who was alive for your persecution is long dead. Even then, it's risky."

Chad didn't want to wait a hundred years. There were all these words in him now. While he sat around this place watching Jade and Mo get older, Pokémon were threatened all over the world. _And I've got six or seven thousand years to live--but the way things are going we might not make it another hundred._ He watched Mo eat, crouched over his bowl. Mo was a Persian now. His legs were longer; the bouncy frisks lengthened to a slinky stride. His ears had rounded, and the dark fur on his paws and tail-tip faded to uniform cream. He had evolved. The charm on his head had become a small red jewel. Unlike some Persians, Mo had kept a human-friendly temperament. After dinner he curled up purring with his head and front paws on Jade's lap while she read him a chapter from a book. Though when he wanted to, he could really catch those Rattata.

"The Pokémon War." Down in the basement Chad opened up the history book that very night, to the introductory page.

In the spring of 1273, war broke out between Saffron City and Cerulean City. The great Pokémon War had begun that was to last nearly a decade. 

The main reason for the Pokémon war, called so because it was fought mainly with Pokémon, stemmed from problems that were seeded when this world was first colonized. A center of power was never established, and the sprawling cities claimed their share as time passed. Eventually Saffron City came to rule over the other regions.

Saffron City imposed heavy taxes, and restricted the capture of Pokémon, citing the decline of wild populations. Taxes became overbearing and led to war. Over 1 million people died, and so did roughly 20 million Pokémon. Several species became extinct or nearly extinct on the mainland. Agents of the notorious crime organization Team Rocket were recruited on both sides to capture Pokémon for war training.

On November 17th, 1282, the "fire brigade" of Cinnabar Island, combined with forces from Cerulean City, started a blaze in Saffron City that leveled it and part of Vermillion, which had been Saffron-occupied for most of the war. This, combined with a growing shortage of powerful Pokémon, ended the war. The years of 1273 to the winter of 1282 have become fixed in history as the worst disaster on this world's human record. 

"Humans killed Pokémon using them to fight _their_ battles?" 

Chad felt filled with despair, not to mention disgust, as he read the grisly details of the war. If humans could commit all these atrocities, how could one charizard convince them to do anything? It was six years now since he had left Chah. Way out over the ocean, it was happening again. 

  
  
  


24: Run, Nidorino

  
  
     _"Charr,"_ Chivonne grunted as she heaved another rock up onto the igloo-like wall and welded it down. Rock by rock she was making a den, against the highest boulder of the outcropping at the edge of the property. She had the day to herself: no training, no chores, and at eleven years old August didn't need daytime watching anymore. Not that he was here. 

They were all at Lunia's wedding. The construction on the house, all the additions (paid for by Daninger) had been finished weeks ago. Lunia and Daninger would move into them tonight. They had been engaged almost a year, because Lunia had agreed that she wouldn't marry before twenty. Chivonne could tell that Daninger had grown on Brett, though he hadn't grown on her. She did not mind staying behind, not only because the event certainly rubbed her the wrong way, but she feared Daninger's "friends." She had met a few of them at the engagement party last year and they scared her.

She had no choice. Pokémon with open flames were not permitted inside the church, or in the ballroom where the reception would take place. August had not been allowed to stay here with her. Brett wouldn't hear of it.

Chivonne over-melted the next rock she placed; white-hot rock ran down like syrup on pancakes. She had to be careful. These forests were full of flammable debris, waiting for a spark.

It was a poor den, nothing like the high caves her parents had raised her in. But it was better than sleeping in the same lair with that man. There would be many nights when she would feel that she couldn't stay in the house--she felt antsy there lately anyway. She had gotten so used to living like them, almost feeling human, that she had nearly forgotten that change was upon her.

Sleeping out here come winter wasn't practical, though. Without another body to curl up with, it got nippy, and electric heating had spoiled her.

"I'd rather freeze my tail off than sleep in a house with Daninger." She hoisted another rock up and let it slam down in place. Chips cracked off. Half of it was not revulsion, but fear. It was best, for everyone, that he see as little of her as possible, that he not learn fully what was happening. But he knew. 

Just yesterday he had spied on her. Lying squirming on her bed. . . Blue-eyes, she growled at the ceiling, in her language. Then a creak of a floorboard, that slight shift of a large body outside the slightly open door. Chivonne jumped up to meet Daninger right in the hall. He smiled down at her. 

She had tried to joke. "I caught you."

"I caught you."

"Well can't a lady have her fun? I'm not exactly your type anyway."

"I've looked into some breeding programs you might like. You should invest that energy in something." Again, that smile.

More than his trying to manage her reproductive life, his smile scared her.

_Just *try* to come out here._

"Brett," Daninger called, coming across the field to where Brett stood in the enclosure, watching his friend's Nidorino and Nidorina finish up the last of their grass and grain lunches. 

"Oh, hi." Brett opened the fence door. "Came to see them?"

"Yup. Will they bite?"

"No, I keep them in here because they keep wandering past the fences. They don't know the limits. But she's really gentle. He's. . .touchy, but he knows me. They're here for a week while Jim's on vacation." Brett knelt and gave the Nidorino's purple head a fond scratch, then fed him a carrot. "Jim said I can use them in battles if I want to enter Chivonne in more team tourneys. She approves."

The Nidorino nodded. "Nido."

"Does he have a lot of experience?"

"A moderate amount. The Nidorino's aggressive with other Pokémon that he thinks he can dominate--that's just the species--but that he's loyal." Brett stood up and held an apple out. "Nido, rina." "Rino!" Both stood up on hind legs to grab it, but the Nidorina popped up in front and closed her buck teeth on it. He pulled out another for the Nidorino.

"I haven't got much experience with using a full team, maybe you could give me pointers?" He shrugged. 

"As long as you choose robust types, and vary elements, anything's fine."

"Hey, we can train together. I'm going to get them out practicing techniques tomorrow."

"Yes." Daninger followed Brett as he proceeded to clean things up around the water trough. "I was wondering if you had noticed Chivonne's condition."

"Condition?" He bent down to pick up some old hay. Chivonne had helped him clean out this enclosure a few days ago. She seemed chipper to him.

"Did you know she is ready to breed?"

"Wasn't she always?"

"Not seriously. In the wild, now would be the time she would decide on a mate, or begin seriously experimenting."

"Well. . .You don't own a charizard. I don't know anyone who does."

"The problem is she's confined here. That can make them temperamental because what they want to do is fly all over the place looking."

"She has been . . . aloof lately. And six years ago she had this outburst, she wanted to get to Crimson City to see that charizard who went mad in the gym, and killed that guy. She actually tried to make the express, I had to pick her up at the station."

"I remember that gym incident. She was probably feeling the pull to mate already. But it's going to get worse."

"How do you know so much?"

"I know about charizards." Daninger kicked at a tuft of short grass. "I used to work with them. I read about them. Look at her, sleeping out there in those rocks for the last two weeks? If you don't let her breed she might grow more ornery." 

He must have seen something Brett had missed. Brett looked up and saw his expression, lips tightly shut. "Daninger, you scared of her?"

"Don't you ever tell her, but she does scare me. I've seen the look in her eye. She took an instant dislike to me, the day we met."

"Chivonne wouldn't hurt you."

"I don't want you to breathe a word of what I'm saying. You hear?"

"Sure, we humans are entitled to our secrets." Brett chuckled. "What?"

"This is serious."

"Daninger, if it's that serious she'll read it on my face the minute she sees me."

"There, you see?" He pointed at Brett. "Too smart for comfort."

"She's just very intuitive. She's known me since I was born, she should be."

"At the risk of sounding paranoid, I'll say that beast is after my blood."

"Daninger. . ."

"She looks at me with the eyes of a hunter." Daninger saw Brett heading to the gate and he opened it for him, stepping out after and closing it. The Nidorans were playing as the men walked down the small field to the house.

"It's getting cloudy. Good thing Chivonne and I fixed that leaky roof or those poor Nidorans would've got soaked tonight." He put his hands in his pockets and watched his feet walk through the grass. "Just didn't want to Poké Ball them. Messes up their sleep."

"Brett, I'm warning you. She doesn't have an ounce of love for humans--it's all an act. She's behaving because it's in her best interest."

"You haven't seen her with August."

"I have. She's cultivating him too. She's got it down pat after you and your father."

"Daninger, I won't have you saying these things about her. She's a treasured member of our family. She's also the reason I can afford to keep up this place."

"Sooner or later you'll see what I'm saying," said Daninger. "I swear the look in that lizard's eye chills the hell out of me."

Brett strode up the stoop to the back door. "You've been watching too many movies."

Brett and Chivonne were out training again in the fields. Lunia was out shopping. It was three weeks till school started and August didn't have much to show for the summer. He leaned his elbows on the back of the couch, staring out the window till his jaw got sore from resting on his hands. He knew his friends were probably trying to catch Pokémon, or, more likely, begging their parents to buy them one. Last year, using his grandfather's camera, August had tried taking pictures of them, but there were almost none around, except for Chivonne, and he got tired of taking pictures of her. Not that she wasn't photogenic. It just wasn't an adventure when the Pokémon were already familiar, and willing to strike any pose he liked. Chivonne barely seemed like a Pokémon to him at all. She had raised him. He wanted to see them in their real habitat, but his dad refused to let him go into Gloomleaf. Brett had taken him to the TV/computer and shown him old news files of young trainers who had entered Gloomleaf, armed with their own Pokémon, and never been heard from again. Chivonne had sadly turned him down when he'd begged her to fly him in anyway.

"But I'll be totally safe with you!"

"It has nothing to do with that. We could both get in serious trouble. Years ago I tried to leave just for a day in the city, on my own, and it made such an upset. I don't know what he'd do if I did it again, especially with you on my back." She paused. "Eventually we'll go there." But judging from the feel of riding Chivonne lately, he was getting heavy for her.

Daninger had yet to show August his Pokémon team. At first August had not cared to see them, but eventually his curiousity made him ask. "When you're twelve," said Daninger. Chivonne had stepped forward, asking to meet them herself. "When you're twelve hundred." Daninger didn't even go to televised matches, only private ones. Was it because he didn't want to make the kid jealous? Or offend him by showing him the animals he pitted against each other in "training?" Probably, he wanted to keep him curious.

Chivonne had told him that Daninger hadn't shown her either. If he had shown Dad, Dad wasn't saying a thing. He hadn't bothered to even ask Lunia.

The man was just. . .weird.

Daninger was in the kitchen, throwing a lunch together. August heard his boots clunking their rubbery soles on the tiles as the microwave hummed. Daninger was probably heading out to join Brett and Chivonne. August knew from his father's recent offers to accompany him on training sessions, that he wanted August to carry on his work someday.

But he felt funny giving Chivonne orders, like telling his mother what to do. August turned around on the couch.

"Daninger, can I see your Pokémon today?"

"Can you come in here please? I can't hear you."

August got off the couch, ran in, and stood before Daninger at the stove as he repeated himself. He didn't hold out much hope.

Daninger looked down at him. He smiled. 

"Actually, today's a good day. Good weather. Yes, as soon as I'm done eating, let's go."

Daninger led August, with his camera hanging around his neck, out to the west field. He took out a Poké Ball and pressed the button. Out spilled a Gyarados. The enormous serpent gazed down at August.

"Whoa." 

Daninger then released a Persian, a Weezing, an Aerodactyl, a Tauros, and finally two Electabuzzes. All impressive beasts, most rare--but why had he been so secretive?

"Here are my Pokémon. It's a shame you haven't got your own team, or we could train together. Would you like to see them in action?"

"No." August didn't want Daninger ordering them to fight each other one more time, just to entertain him. "Where'd you get them?"

No answer.

The Aerodactyl was staring intently at August; it opened a huge mouth full of sharp teeth. One of the Electabuzzes also looked. It began to spark; it growled and leaned towards him. August felt his hair lifting, his clothes clinging with static. . .

"Electabuzz! Aerodactyl! Stop it!" Daninger barked. The Aerodactyl sat back, glowering in silence. The Electabuzz forced itself to look away from August, but then it looked back. August started to back away.

"Stay still--don't run. I see what's wrong." He ordered the Electabuzz and Aerodactyl back into their Poké Balls. The other Electabuzz was only watching with passing interest, but Daninger returned it too.

"It was your clothing." Daninger pointed to August's bright red T-shirt. "Aerodactyls and Electabuzzes have a very aggressive response to red. It drives them mad."

August gulped, wetting the inside of his mouth.

"I suppose now you see why I wanted to wait to show you my team." He returned the others one by one, clipping the balls on his belt. "They can overwhelm you."

"Why do you--" August swallowed again. "Why do you keep--those Pokémon? Are they the best for battle?"

"All Pokémon are best. It's the training that counts. But a Pokémon has to have a certain quality before I place it on my team."

"What quality?" August lengthened his stride to keep up with Daninger as he headed out to join Brett and Chivonne.

"They must obey me," said Daninger, his nose pointing to the horizon, "no matter what I tell them to do."

Lunia's car pulled up the gravelly driveway shortly after August and Daninger arrived back at the house. "Sushi for dinner," she said. Chivonne's mouth watered.

"Did you get enough for everyone?" said Brett. Chivonne knew whom he was talking about; more than once when it was her shopping, she had brought only enough dinner home for Chivonne to eat a human portion. Lunia's genuine grin decayed into a spiteful one as she began unloading the grocery bags. 

"Yes, I got everything on the family list."

"Thanks a lot," said Brett. "I needed that time today with Jim's Pokémon. They're out in their pen now. You can stay in, I'll get the rest of the bags."  
He went outside and didn't come in again. 

"I'd better wash my hands." Daninger walked out, up the stairs. "You too, August."

"I know."

Chivonne took a salad bown out from the cabinet. She set it on the counter, and laid a knife on the cutting board as Daninger came back in the kitchen. 

And Brett screamed.

"Dad?" Lunia reached the door first, followed by August and Chivonne.

"Eeeeee!" Lunia, flinging the front door open, screamed too. She whirled back inside, clutching her skirt away from Chivonne as the charizard passed her. Brett leaned against the car hood, by the opened side door. She could not see where he was hurt, but as she ran down the porch stoop he sank to his butt on the pavement. Groceries had spilled out over where the driveway met the lawn, cans rolling away.

Jim's Nidorino was sniffing the sushi. 

"Get him away from me!" Screaming, Brett kicked one leg at the purple creature. Chivonne spread her wings and roared. A gust of fire from her mouth, fanned by her flapping, repelled the creature; it danced away. 

"Nidorino--he's gone crazy. . ." said Brett as Chivonne knelt by him. "He charged me and stung me in the leg. I'm all right. But you have to stop him."  
The Nidorino had run around the other side of the car. Chivonne took flight and leapt clear over, swooping round the house in pursuit. The large, armored, rabbit-like animal headed around to the back yard, out into the field, towards its large, partly forested enclosure. It disappeared among groves of trees.

Chivonne landed inside the fenced-in space. Folding her wings partly, she spotted the animal among bushes, with the Nidorina. Both Pokémon looked to be having a nap, as if nothing had happened. A hole had been clawed in the fence further down. 

"Nidorino!"

The pair yawned and raised their heads. 

"Nidorino, what did you just do. Why--what's going on?"

"I don't know, charizard." Nidorino had never been very friendly with her, maybe because she got more attention and privileges, and because right now he would rather be with Jim. "Leave us alone, we're trying to sleep."

"I saw you running away from attacking Brett out front. Don't you know your poison could kill him?"

"What are you talking about?" said the Nidorina. "We've been in here. Brett put us in after training us with Daninger's Pokémon."

"Must've been another Nidorino," he said. 

"Brett wouldn't make that mistake with you."

"Well you made one. "

"And the hole?" Chivonne pointed to the hole ripped in the high fence.

"What?" They both hopped out to where the damage had been done. "I've never seen that. We didn't make it."

"And why would we?" said Nidorina. "What's out there for us?"

"Your lives," she said suddenly. She didn't know why, but she believed them; even her remaining uncertainty would not let humans convict this animal. They had already done too much. "Go. Run to Gloomleaf. Nidorino, I know we don't get along but you have to believe me. The humans think you attacked Brett. Brett said it was you--it looked just like you. Flee into Gloomleaf as far as you can. I'll send Jim after you somehow. I'll let him know."  
"What?" Nidorino looked out at the vista, then back at Chivonne. "And how do I know you're not crazy?"

"If you wait they'll kill you. It's your choice."

Nidorina's ears pricked up. "I hear the humans."

"Run!" Chivonne puffed a flame. _"Charrrrr!"_

They squeezed out the hole one by one, and galloped away into the grass among the widely spaced trees into Gloomleaf Forest, beyond where she could fly. Chivonne flew after them, then doubled back as Daninger and Lunia came running down the field.

"August's with Brett," said Daninger as Chivonne landed. "Where'd the Nidorino go?"

"In the woods," said Chivonne. "He's beyond the border now, I lost him through the trees."

Daninger made his way to the enclosure, seeing the hole from the start. He squatted by the broken wires. "Well, here's how they got out. She has to have gone too, following her mate." He stood up and ran his hand over his scalp. The hairline on his left temple was beginning to make inroads. "Nidorinos are aggressive; it's not unusual for them to buck and run. . ."

"I'm going back to Brett and August." She knew where the poison heal was.

She found Brett lying on the living room floor, with August beside him administering potion. His left leg had swollen and stretched his jeans taut. "Oh, Chah." Chivonne moved in and slit the cloth with a claw. "August, call 911."

"I did, they're coming." He leaned close to her, crying; she curled a wing behind August as she lifted Brett's head and trickled the potion down his throat. Brett's eyes were open but he was unresponsive; his head lolling on his neck. Potion dribbled down his cheek to his jaw. He was still breathing, but they would lose him. _If only I hadn't run after Nidorino,_ but she realized it had been too late from the minute he screamed.

"What did he say, August? When you brought him in?" She cried as she lay his head back down, looking at the red, ballooned leg. "Did he say anything."

August turned toward her and she fell into his hug as they heard sirens approaching up the drive. "He started to babble. But before he did. . . He said he loves me. And to tell you--he loves you. He said I'm your trainer when he's gone."

Nidorino and Nidorina were not found. Chivonne switched off the news with a bitter sigh of relief and went to the fridge to scavenge the leftovers from yesterday's after-funeral gathering. Brett's friends, including Jim, were there, but it had mostly been populated by Daninger's associates, who had looked at her with an unhealthy interest in their eyes. As if she were something to be won. 

But a more troubling issue had to be taken care of. That very night, while everyone was downstairs, she had gone on her computer and mail-ordered a Pokémon license, sending a copy of his birth certificate to qualify him. A license card and Pokédex were now on their way in the name of August Kasper.

Chivonne went outside into the morning sun. August was still in bed, and she decided not to get him. This would upset him. Chivonne walked along the familiar trail out to the old enclosure. So many times she had helped him fix up the thing and tend to his sandshrews. What had happened, only four days ago now? If it had not been Jim's Nidorino--and she too had recognized the one picking at the strewn groceries--who had it been? Daninger did not own one, and they were rarely spotted anywhere in Gloomleaf anymore. Wild Pokémon avoided humans.

No two Nidorino could have looked so alike as to fool both her and Brett. It was a mystery she would never solve. Her eyes blinked back tears as she looked through the fence into the enclosure. The weeds would soon reclaim it. Julian's baby was gone. Did she know now how it felt to lose a charmander?

Going to the hole in the fence for the first time in four days, she knelt and studied it. 

The wires' torn ends stuck out mostly towards her; claw marks raked the plastic coating from the side she now stood on. This hole had been made from the outside of the fence.

"Magikarp isn't really only scales and bones is it," said August, looking at the can as he and Chivonne made a fish salad for dinner, the next evening. Chivonne took the can opener to it as he bounced a head of lettuce on the cutting board.

Chivonne smiled. "It's one of my favorite dishes."

"Me too." 

"Me three," said Daninger, stepping into the room. Lunia wasn't there. She hadn't entered any room with Chivonne in it since the funeral. "I might as well take over for you, Chivonne. Being as I can't allow my Pokémon to overwork themselves."

August stopped dropping the lettuce. "Chivonne's not anyone's Pokémon. She's--hers." He took the cutting knife, finally getting to work on the salad.

"Chivonne may think so. But she was legally your father's."

August's lip trembled; he bit it. "But--"

"Dad gave her to me, Chivonne said so. Yesterday." August looked away from them.

"Ah," said Daninger, "but no one may own a Pokémon legally with no license. As the only other kin, Lunia automatically has first claim, and since she isn't all that enamored of Chivonne anyway, the charizard is then hers to give to anyone she pleases. Naturally I want Chivonne to remain within the family."

"Don't worry, August," said Chivonne, cutting off his tears and crossing the room to the slack-jawed boy, "your license is coming in the mail. It's in the worldwide database, valid as of two days ago, which is when the will took effect." She lowered her chin at Daninger, making her shoulders look larger. Her eyes glowed. "How dare you try to pull that on an 11-year-old boy two days after his father's funeral. What's worse is I saw it coming."

Daninger turned on his heel and went back up the stairs.

August's license and Pokédex arrived in the mail on time. "I should've got this stuff last year," he said, pointing it at Chivonne again. She was sure glad to see him smiling again, even only briefly. "Cool, and you can customize it."

"Yeah, I got you the newest version. You can keep a journal in it too."

"In that case--it's time to tell them. Ready?"

She took his hand. "I was always ready."

They marched out front, and waited for Daninger and Lunia to come home from work, since Chivonne wasn't giving them a penny.

"I have an announcement to make," he said soberly as Daninger came up the walkway. "Now that I own Chivonne, I'm--" He looked over at the charizard for reassurance and she smiled, "I'm changing her rules. Chivonne's allowed to go wherever she wants, even in the city. And she can hunt, too."

"That is a big mistake," said Daninger, but August didn't stop to listen to him.

"In fact. . .I'm going on a Pokémon journey with her."

Daninger put his heavy hand on August's shoulder. "You may be allowed to dictate what Chivonne can do, but not yourself. We're your guardians now and I say no."

Chivonne spent most of the rest of the day comforting August and talking him out of trying to run away. These days, there was nowhere to run to. And she knew Daninger had the power to find him, and her, if they ever left.

"Blue-eyes, I never wanted to see your face more than I do now," she said after retiring to her room that night, as she opened her desk drawer for the disk.

The disk was gone. Searching her entire room, she found it nowhere.

  
  
  


25: On the Road Again

  
  
     Chad faced his mirror. "I'm gonna tell her today." 

After Jade served him Char-Chow, Chad began writing something. Mo was still eating. In the last year or so Mo had gotten slower at eating. He'd gotten slower at a lot of things. 

"What are you writing?" said Jade. Chad handed her the paper.

Jade read: I need to talk to you about going back to Chah.

"Oh, Chad." She looked at him with sad eyes. "Of course. Tell me."

"I need to go free."

"You're homesick?"

Chad nodded.

"Well--Chad--this is your home! I thought we went over this last year. I'm really sorry you miss your island, but you can't get there." She placed her hand on his, talking slowly, like he were a charmander.

Chad wrote: "I can find someone to help me. Somewhere someone will have a way."

Frowning at the paper, Jade sat on the couch. Uh-oh. A lecture.

"Chad. I need someone to keep me company till I die. It isn't long now--ten or twenty more years. What's that to your thousands? When I'm gone, I'd love for you to do what you please. But I'll go insane with no one here."

"Mo?"

"Mo isn't like you. For one thing I don't understand his speech as well. Another. . ." She shook her head. "You seem more alive, in focus. You were my childhood friend! Now don't get me wrong, Mo is a darling, just like old Frisky. But you have something he doesn't have. You were always special."

Who had called him special back home, besides his parents?

Well this is like having another parent. Nice, but all good things must come to an end. 

Flying outside, Chad shot up in the sky. The wind stung his eyes as he flew high over the skeletal trees. "I should be happy here."

Here he didn't have to put up with abuse, humiliation, or jealousy. He didn't even have to worry about his next meal. There might be no others of his kind here, but . . ."Face it, you were never that good at being a charizard anyway."

As lonely as he might be, he was foolish to think he could become Mr. Stud just by starting off fresh at another end of the island. He was still Chad. 

Chad landed, threw his head back and gave his biggest roar, a fountain of fire spouting from his mouth. It felt good. 

He did not know that someone had heard him.

Chad and Mo sat outside in the the cool wind. It was one of the first days in March warm enough to stroll, or sit. Chad lay on his stomach and looked at the stars near the horizon.

"Mo you ever think of leaving here?"

Mo's tail curled. "Why would I leave."

"To go home."

"I am home."

"What about Chah?"

Mo looked over at Chad, just above eye level with him. He blinked sleepily. "Maybe you remember Chah, but I only remember here. I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault."

Mo was lucky. He didn't remember Chah. Dorien was only a hazy nightmare. And he had a home.

"Well, it's getting kinda cold, I'm going in."

"See you." Chad watched Mo pad off over the sprouting grass. He didn't run and bound like he once had.

Chad wasn't sure how many years it had been, but he would see Mo die in the next few. Here he would remain, as others sprouted up and hunched away with the decades, like summer weeds. It was strange how they owned him, and not the other way around. Well, what use would he have for a human? He gave a laugh.

Twilight deepened to dark. Stars twinkled over him. "Mom, Dad . . ." He sighed, letting a blue flame curl out. "I keep saying I'll come home, but well, it's been long enough now that I don't even remember what year it is." Those sneaky years, slithering though the gaps in his mathematics skills. He had failed all but the simplest of Jade's arithmetic lessons. "I hope you weren't chosen." 

He wondered if they wanted to be, to find him. That was crazy, but you did crazy things for your kids, no matter how disappointing they were. 

He might not have an ideal future here, but at least it would be a future. And in 6,000 years. . . who knew?

Out in the brush he heard a familiar. . .yet strange. . . whisper.

"Chad!"

Chad stood up. A Pokémon was calling him, by name, and it wasn't Mo. He pointed his tail out toward the bushes.

Into the shuddering orange light stepped a lithe, tall fox with a slender body and many fluffy tails waving behind her. A Ninetales, close to a Vulpix in color. Her olive-green eyes brightened, sparkling. Her ears perked.

"Chad?"

Chad stood speechless.

"Vixen?"

"Well?" Vixen sat down, curling a few tails around her. "What are you doing just sitting there--you clod? Come over here and hug me."

The ice broke. He snatched her up in his arms. "Vix! How did you--"

"Ahh--" Vixen gasped for air, clawing and kicking. "Let me down!" 

Chad loosened his grip. "Sorry."

"By Chah. I said hug me, not strangle me." Vixen smoothed her tails out. "Well it's actually good to see you, lizard." She looked him up and down. "Chah. It's like you're back from the dead. I saw the news. . .we all did. . ."

"They faked my death," Chad said as they walked towards the house.

"They didn't do a good job did they."

Chad had to laugh. "So how did you get here?"

Vixen told him.

"All this time. . ." he shook his head. "Where've you been? How'd you find me?"

"As always, full of corny questions. I've been staying in Poké City, but often come out here. A fox needs her solitude. How'd I find you? Simple. I could hear you roaring miles away. I know your roar." Vixen gave his side a pat. "You got a little taller, and a little fatter."

"You're no side of beef yourself."

"Call me fat and I put a thousand-year curse on you."

"I'll outlive it." He mussed the crest of fur on her head. "If we can ever get out of this place--"

Vixen put her front paws on his hands. "That's what I came to tell you. I really found you a few days ago, and Mo, but I didn't want to tell you yet because I didn't know if your humans would try to catch me or anything. So I went back to the city. You've been there?"

"No."

"I didn't think so. Anyway this person in a bar perked up right away when I said who you were. She said she could get us both back home!"

"No way!"

"She's just down the road, waiting to take you out of here! She knows someone who can take us home. And no one will know!"

"Home," Chad sighed. He looked over his shoulder at Jade's house, where Mo slept peacefully.

"Don't get sentimental, it looks dumb on a charizard. Go in and get Mo. I don't like waiting here, humans give me the creeps."

"Mo."

The cat squinted his eyes open as Chad shook him. "Chad, what--"

"It's Vixen! She's come back! We can all go back to Chah tonight. I'm writing a note to Jade. . ." 

He felt sad.

Mo stood up and stretched his front legs. Joints cracked. "Chad, I told you I don't remember Chah. Or Vixen."

"Oh Mo." Chad slumped down.

"So this is goodbye?"

Chad sighed. "I guess."

"I'll miss you big guy. You'll visit?"

"Sure I will." He already knew he never could.

"I don't know about this. Now. . ."

"We both know you have to go. I'm not like you, I've almost always lived with humans and I love Jade. You need to be wild."

"I know." 

They were hugging when Jade came into the room.

"Chad? Mo? What is it?"

"I'll be right back." Chad couldn't look Jade in the eyes as he left down the basement stairs. 

He went to his little desk, an old piece that Jade had given him six or seven years ago, and wrote a note.

_ Dear Jade, _

    I'm sorry to write this. But I have to tell you. My old friend from Chah is here and she found someone who can take me back secretly. I thank you for everything but I have to go back home. That's just how charizards are I guess. I will miss you very much. Again, I'm sorry to you and to Mo. If I can, I will visit you. Thanks for saving my life and teaching me how to read. You opened up a world for me. I'll never forget.

    Love,

    Chad 

"But Chad." Jade's face was drawn out long, her mouth wide, like she were singing. "You can't go."

"If I don't go now I might never be able to."

Jade put the letter down on the coffee table. "I can tell you're going to leave whether I say you can or can't. I saved your life and taught you to read. I would have thought you'd give me something. Rather than getting up and running out on a second's notice."

"I know. But Jade, I have to go. I don't know how I can make you understand."

Jade got up and went upstairs. She closed the door. Chad heard her sobbing and walked out, very slowly. He stood by the back door, hearing her. His feet felt nailed to the floor.

"Well where've you been? And where's Mo? I'm beginning to recall now that you were never attentive to details." Vixen swatted a gnat with a bushy tail.

"He doesn't want to go. He doesn't even remember Chah, he was a baby when he left. Anyway, I'm not really ready yet myself."

"What?"

He looked at her with his neck erect, both feet firm on the sparse spring grass. "I need some time to decide if and when I'm leaving. This is too sudden for . . . my human friend."

"I don't think I'm really hearing this. Chad, she is waiting in the car!"

"I need one more day!"

"Okay." Vixen pawed the ground. "Okay, let me get this straight, you'd rather live with humans than your own kind."  
Chad looked to the side, and let out fire that had built up in him. He licked his chops to wet his mouth. "If I went back now, I'd have to start all over in some strange place."

"Well aren't charizards a go-it-alone type anyway? I started over like five times in my life and I'm no worse for it."

If she was saying she had started out like this, that explained her need to keep starting over. Chad couldn't explain, while retaining any pride, that he just didn't fit with his own kind. It had sure taken him a while, and several disasters, to learn that!

Sure, he could go it alone, but he already craved a mate. Here, it was easier to distract himself, in books, television, chores, fill his days with stuff. 

But oh. . .the feeling of flying through endless sky, unbound and free, sacrificed for this place. 

It wasn't fair.

"Just please give me tonight. If you can come back tomorrow."

"You're nuts." Vixen's claws scuffed the grass. She blew a flame, charring a few blades. "I'll be here tomorrow morning. For the last time!"

Her tails waved out behind her like a lowered peacock's tail as she ran swiftly into the bushes.

Jade was in the kitchen putting away dishes when Chad walked in the back door. "Chad!" She put a hand to her heart. "You didn't go?"

Chad looked around for paper and pen. Jade handed him them and he wrote what Vixen had said. 

"I'm so glad you decided to think it over," said Jade, putting a hand on his shoulder as she gave the paper back to him. "My Blaze."

He helped her put away the dishes.

Chad paced the basement that night. He knew he could not stay. How could he say the entire island would treat him like Chah's clan had? He couldn't sit around here making tea, reading novels and masturbating, while knowing he could have given freedom another try. 

He woke up lying on his back, to a knocking on the basement door.

"Chad? Can I come in?" Jade.

Chad forced his eyes open and bent forward with a grunt. He flexed his wings. One was sore, he must have slept funny. He heard Jade walking back upstairs, then her voice again.

"Mo, go down and see if he's up. . ."

Vixen. This morning. Chad sprang up and ran, wobbly with sleep, up the stairs as Mo came down. 

"Good morning. Did you just wake up?"

"Yeah, had a bad night." Chad and Mo both met Jade at the top of the stairs.

"Don't worry, it's not too late and I didn't see any Ninetales out back yet. I just want to tell you, I've thought it through and I want to apologize for how I was last night. You need to do this. Mo and I will miss you terribly, but if you don't go you'll never find your place. You promise to visit if you can, though, right?"

"Of course." And all three of them hugged.

"I'm so lucky I found you again," said Jade. "You'll do fine out there."

Chad knew he was the lucky one. If there was a Chah, he had tossed Chad a little of His magic flame.

Chad, Jade and Mo stood by the bushes far behind the house, where Vixen had said she would be. The morning sun heightened and no one came.

"Maybe she's intimidated by me," said Jade, her arms wrapped around herself in her coat. "You did say she was wary of humans."

"Maybe." Chad didn't think that was it, but he sat there while Jade left. By the time she came back, Chad had called for Vixen, flown around trying to scout her out, and finally laid down sideways, head propped on his hand, with Mo catnapping nearby. 

"Still not here, huh." Jade peered in the bushes, then stood back, hands folded.

Chad rolled on his stomach and flamed the dirt, watching the grass flash alight and curl into embers. He clawed the ground. "Where are you, Vixen?"

"I'm so sorry." Jade knelt and stroked his wing. "If I hadn't blown off at you, you could have left last night." 

Chad stared at the blackened patch of earth. Had he only dreamed seeing Vixen? Mo walked up, rubbing his furry cheek against Chad's arm in his catty way. He meowed in sympathy, a cracky old meow.

"I'll take the best care of you that I can for the rest of my life, and so will Jasmine and John," said Jade as the three of them walked back to the house. Chad held his tail low, almost too low, trailing the others. Jade put her arm around his shoulders. "I'll even buy you that big gas kiln you wanted."

Chad stared out the back door. He could barely finish his dinner, nibbling at the beef patties Jade cooked him. After cleaning his hands he stepped out into the cool, windy sunset. Jade watched him go. 

One more time, he would try one more time. He sighed at his stupidity. The wind blew his tail flame sideways as he followed the path to the place by the bushes.

He met Vixen halfway.

"Vixen where were--"

"She had car trouble. You're not going to believe her car."

"Then--" Chad hopped up. "I'm running back to say goodbye. I'll be right back."

Vixen waved a paw at him. "Make it snappy!" 

  
"I wish you the best luck." Standing on the back patio, Jade hugged him, and Chad remembered that she was the same girl he had spent sunny afternoons with on Chah. When she released him, tears were streaming down her face. "You're such a nice fellow, I know there's a girl charizard out there who'll fall all over you someday. Take care of yourself, and don't forget to practice your handwriting. Goodbye. And I love you."

"I love you too."

  
  
  
Hmm, I notice no one, or almost no one, has been reviewing these. If it's because they bore you to tears, please let me know! I welcome any kind of feedback over none at all!


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